Every Rose Has It's Thorn
by Ezri Rei
Summary: After three years of hiatus, Allen's favorite band is back and with a lot more secrets than they can keep. After managing to worm his way in unwillingly, he thinks maybe he can't handle this after all. Being thrown aside and insulted by them, his curiosity grows worse. What happened to their previous singer? Why is Lavi so hateful? And why does his chest hurt so much around him?
1. Chapter 1

**January 22nd**

"I wonder what happened to them." Allen mused to himself as he flipped through his 'Innocence' calendar Lou Fa got him for Christmas.

Innocence just happened to be his favorite band. They were _amazing_ to say the least; however, after three years, they just dropped off the face of the planet like something terrible happened. Allen was so _obsessed_ with their wonderful music, even if they haven't produced that many albums. The lyrics and their _voices _is what got him into the band. He had listened to every one of their interviews and knew all of their songs by _heart. _Then, when they just stopped saying anything a year ago, he felt so possessed. He even introduced them to everyone he knew in hopes that they would come back. There was one interview in the past year and Lenalee, the bassist, informed that their singer/keyboardist was gone. That didn't seem like a good excuse honestly. They all had beautiful voices. Even Kanda's voice was amazing...most of the time he seemed like a prick, but he had never met him so he couldn't judge. Still, even without their lead singer, Daisya, they all sounded wonderful. Personally, Allen liked Lavi's voice the most. He was the drummer so it was quite unexpected that he had a wonderful voice, but Allen just _adored _it.

"Maybe they quit." Shifu mused as he flipped through his Chemistry book. Allen frowned at the suggestion.

"Maybe they need a break. They _are_ amateurs." Allen's frown only deepened at Fou's rude comment.

"Maybe they couldn't take the celebrity life." Rikei tried, hoping his answer would soothe Allen's nerves, rather than frenzy them.

"They weren't really that popular to begin with. Fou pointed out.

"You guys aren't helping." Allen huffed.

"Maybe they just have writer's block?" Lou Fa suggested quietly.

"Who knows, maybe the singer made everything happen and with him gone, they're all lost." Once again, Fou didn't hesitate to bluntly insult them.

"I think the only way to know for sure is to listen to a recent interview." Lou Fa added in quickly.

"That isn't possible though because they're too-" Lou Fa tugged on Fou's shirt and shook her head. Fou simply rolled her eyes. "I'm just pointing out the obvious." Allen let out a frustrated sigh.

"I wish they would get back on again. Hopefully their next album will be the best yet." He mumbled as he sipped his milkshake.

"They've had enough time to work on it." Fou muttered. "Other artists are going to look down on them if they don't get their act together soon."

"Right." Shifu agreed.

"Maybe we should email them anonymously." Lou Fa suggested.

"That sounds like a bad idea...what if they found out who we were?" Allen commented.

"So fucking what? Who cares what they think. We like their music, they should feel flattered." Fou insisted.

"True." Rikei smiled. "I think we should do it."

"They probably get fanmail all the time. What's the chance that they're actually gonna read it?" Allen pointed out.

"They probably also get hate mail." Fou added as she pulled out her phone and started typing a message.

"Can you stop that?!" Allen exclaimed. Fou just shrugged.

"Don't make the message rude or they won't read it." Shifu mumbled, looking over the orange-haired girl's shoulder. Fou rolled her eyes.

"Whatever." After a few more minutes of constant writing, she pressed her touchscreen with her index finger and drew it back in a swift motion. "Done."

"What if they reply?" Allen asked curiously.

"Like hell they're going to reply. They'll see the message and hopefully get some enthusiasm out of it. Celebrities never reply to their mail."

"Which is actually understandable considering how many emails they get a day." Rikei added. Allen looked down at his calendar and sighed at the collage of Lavi all over his August page.

_I wish you guys would come back out soon..._

**February 5th**

Allen got his wish a few weeks from them. He was lazily laying on the couch after just waking up and Cross flicked on the television as he sat in the recliner. Allen just wanted to go back to sleep, but that was impossible with the TV on. "Why don't you do something useful and make me some coffee?" Cross said, not even looking at him.

"Gimme a minute." Allen mumbled, rubbing his eyes as he tried to drill the sleep out of them. After he laid there for a few minutes, he stood up and padded over to the kitchen, standing in front of the coffee maker. He yawned before pulling it closer and lifting up the lid to pour water from the coffee pot in and then scooped as many grains as Cross liked before closing the lid and pressing start. Allen made himself a glass of orange juice. He walked towards the living room and leaned against the doorway, his eyes lazily looking over at the TV as he sipped from his cup.

"Just in: it seems like a not-so-popular band is making their way back after three years of doing absolutely nothing! They had an interview last year and now they're back onstage again. Their fans are tripping it up, asking constant questions and sending constant emails about when their concert will be. They said that they were inspired by an email sent to them not too long ago-only a couple of weeks." Allen spat out his orange juice and choked when he saw Innocence themselves walking down the street, talking among each other on the video. "Word has it that..." Allen tuned out and pulled out his phone, dialing Fou's number as quickly as he could. He walked downstairs to get some privacy from Cross.

"Oi, Shorty, why ya callin' me so damn early in the mornin'?" She growled through the phone.

"Turn on the TV!"

"Wha?"

"Just do it!"

"Ugh. This better be good or I'm kicking your ass." Allen could hear a thump over the phone and a few seconds passed before he could hear the TV channel through the phone. "Oh. My. God."

"Right!?"

"This calls for a music meeting! Like. Now. I'll call the others. Bring your guitar because I am in the _mood!_ This is fucking awesome! Bring, like, all your music! Hurry with it and meet me behind the cafe!"

"Alri-"

_Click._

Allen didn't even care that she just hung up on him. He didn't even care that it was almost seven in the morning. He had to _move._ He quickly ran upstairs and then sorted through the closet, taking clothes and running to the bathroom, slipping on his black and red checkered skinny jeans, his white, button down shirt and black vest. He quickly grabbed his cherished ribbon and nearly choked himself when he tied it around his neck tightly. He barely got any toothpaste in his mouth when he brushed his teeth and bolted out of the bathroom after spitting. He grabbed his guitar case, lacing up his knee high converses and running out. He didn't even put his contacts in.

This actually turned out to be a bad idea.

Normally, Allen would take the time to style his hair perfectly. His part was on the left side so that everyone could see his scar, but that was also where his bad eye was and since it was naturally that way, his bangs would cover up his right eye-aka, his _good_ eye-and he could barely see. With his entire folder of music in his hands and running like there was no tomorrow, he ran into about three telephone poles, two dogs, and a few trees on his way down the street. Honestly, he was surprised that he kept all of his music intact. He was just shouting an apology to an old woman, whom he nearly thrown to the ground (don't worry, she got her revenge by smacking him with what had to be a concrete purse) and then wasn't looking where he was going, slamming into someone and his papers scattered out of his folder.

"Ah! Sorry, I really couldn't see...not because I wasn't paying attention...I don't have my contacts in and oh my god she's going to kill me if I don't hurry." The girl he ran into picked up a sheet and tilted her head. He could barely see her because his right eye was covered, but she looked somewhat familiar.

"Did you...did you write all this?"

"What? Oh...yeah, a little. I mean, they're all still rough drafts, thank you for that," he said, snatching the paper out of her hands, "anyways, gotta go, sorry, bye!" He shouted and ran off again. He didn't expect to be so early and sat on the curb, pulling out his guitar. It was so old, but looked brand new. It was a cherished possession of his. It was his first instrument that Mana gifted to him. He ghosted his fingers over the strings and smiled softly at the sound. He grabbed his pic he designed himself (it was back when he was in high school and listened to Innocence everyday, so it was Innocence-inspired with a lot of their designs on it) and positioned his guitar correctly where his right finger-less glove was, playing a small tune.

"Eyy, Allen!" Fou called, jogging over. "Thanks for waking me up! You've got everyone excited now with the big news on the tele, eh?" Allen smiled as they all tiredly gathered around. They looked tired, like they were literally dragged out of their beds.

"I suppose."

"So, you gonna do it?" Allen deadpanned at Rikei's question.

"Um...do what exactly?" Fou went silent at his question.

"A-Allen...the TV...did you not watch it after you called Fou?"

"..."

"There's gonna be a contest! Isn't that great?! You could totally sign up." Rikei informed with a excitement. Allen felt his stomach drop.

"No...not...I can't do that...Rikei, I like them and all, but I can't...not in front of so many people..." He mumbled, combing his fingers through his hair.

"Now you've made him nervous." Fou muttered.

"I-I'm not nervous!" He denied.

"Yes you are." They all replied. Allen huffed and stared down at his guitar lovingly.

"I'm fine with just listening to them. Doing what they do takes a lot of skill. Not only playing, but managing when their music comes out, the money business...contests...all that..."

"You're not the manager! You don't have to worry about all that. Here, just, calm down and play a song. Then think about it." Fou said and sorted through his music.

"Okay...good idea..." Allen mumbled and took a few deep breaths before strumming peacefully.

_"When I look into your eyes  
__It's like watching the night sky  
__Or a beautiful sunrise  
Well there's so much they hold"_

_"And just like them old stars  
I see that you've come so far  
__To be right where you are  
How old is your soul?" _

Allen sang gently and Fou yawned, the song lolling her to sleep by the nice flow. His voice became just slightly passionate for the next few verses.

_"Well I won't give up on us  
Even if the skies get rough  
I'm giving you all my love  
I'm still looking up"  
_

He pasued for a few seconds before continuing it.

_"And when you're needing your space  
__To do some navigating  
__I'll be here patiently waiting  
To see what you find"  
_

His voice became higher at the next part. You could tell that he poured out his feelings in the song he was singing. Fou sighed, wondering how such a great voice never caught anyone's attention before. He was so fucking talented. How could anyone _not_ love that beautiful voice? She swore up and down, though she'd never admit it aloud, god _forbid_ she show feelings, that he was the best singer she's ever heard. And she listened to a _lot_ of music. Then again, the only reason she ever got into music was because of Allen to start with. She remembered the first day she met him. Oh, that was such a wonderful day.

_"Cause even the stars they burn  
Some even fall to the earth  
Well we got a lot to learn  
And god knows we're worth it  
No I won't give up"_

For quite a slow song, the next verses were quick. Still, they were brilliant. Allen's cleverness and talent for music always stunned the lot of them.

_"I don't wanna be someone who walks away so easily  
I'm here to stay and make the difference that I can make  
Our differences they do a lot to teach us how to use  
The tools and gifts we got, yeah, we got a lot at stake"  
_

_"And in the end, you're still my friend at least we did intend  
For us to work we didn't break we didn't burn  
We had to learn how to bend without the world caving in  
I had to learn what I've got, and what I'm not, and who I am"_

He held the last note for awhile, his lyrics beginning to slow down once again before he hit the chorus confidently.

"_I won't give up on us  
Even if the skies get rough  
I'm giving you all my love  
I'm still looking up, I'm still looking up"_

Allen repeated the chorus and they chimed in, all smiling together.

_"Well I won't give up on us (no I'm not giving up)  
God knows I'm tough enough (I am tough, I am loved)  
We've got a lot to learn (we're alive, we are loved)  
God knows we're worth it (and we're worth it)"_

They all left Allen to sing the last four verses by himself, increasing the dramatic ending.

_"I won't give up on us  
__Even if the skies get rough  
I'm giving you all my love  
I'm still looking up"_

Allen's strumming slowed to a stop and Fou clapped a hand on his back. "That has to be my favorite song by you _ever._" She commented. Allen rolled his eyes at her.

"You say that about every song."

"Just take the flattery or leave it."

"Thanks, Fou."

"You're welcome, Pipsqueak." Allen was about to shout at her about not being short, but she continued, "time to get you ready!"

"Um...what?" He asked slowly.

"This is going to be so awesome!" Rikei cheered, even getting Lou Fa pumped up.

"Wait, ready for what?"

"What else, dork? The contest!"

**March 22nd**

For the next month and...a half?...Fou and the others worked their _asses _off. Allen was going to get a job...but that seemed impossible with Fou on his back. They practiced on all of his flaws, including his worst fear-being onstage in front of a large crowd. Their methods were quite...interesting. First they held their own little concert (not anything huge) at a party some teenagers were throwing and it worked out pretty smoothly. Allen then pointed out that that was only because they were all drunk and didn't even know what they were listening to. Next, they tried playing out in public (it slightly boosted his self-esteem, but not when strangers just walked by without giving them a glance), so they progressed to the mall.

That was chaos.

At the same time, it was a bunch of fun. In the end, they all got banned after being chased down from the security guards. Long story short: security guards did not like punch. Both kinds. The drink and the abusive action. Note to self: never playfully hit a security guard. Fou learned that very important lesson. It was still pretty entertaining, Allen had to admit, but it didn't help with his stage fright at all. So, they started holding miniature concerts around like at churches (not during church, god forbid they be deemed satanists), parks, parties, and all that sort. It was a bit amusing because someone actually became a 'fan' and asked what their name was. They weren't pleased to find out that they were only practicing.

After an entire month and three quarters, they were ready for the contest that was, oddly enough, exactly two months from when they first emailed Innocence. Innocence stated that this was a great opportunity. Lavi, the one Allen most admired, didn't seem as enthused as Lenalee or Miranda about this. Allen watched from behind the curtain as the redhead skipped so many great, talented artists. One by one, the bands left the stage and each time, Allen could feel his stomach clench each time. There was one more band to go. Then it was their turn. Allen felt like he was going to die. He felt sick. He felt dizzy. He felt nauseous.

"I can't do it." Allen whispered as he stared at the crowd.

"Come on, Shorty, don't chicken out on us now. We're all ready. If we screw up, we screw up. It'll be fine. Just...pretend we're back at the practice building. Just pretend like you're not the one mostly making music. You're just off to the side, but put in front 'cause you're singing, okay?" Allen nodded stiffly at her words, yet they all seemed jumbled up in his head. "If you pull through this, I'll treat you to Golden Corral." She said, elbowing him playfully.

"In all seriousness? Because I might be able to do that. Wait, am I allowed to pass out after everything is over with?" Fou and the others laughed.

"You got it, Babe."

"My name is-"

"Yeah, Allen, I know."

They rolled their instruments out after being called as a number (that made it a bit easier since they didn't know their names, Allen thought) and Allen could feel his stomach twist with agony, looking at all the eyes on him. _Don't pass out, don't pass out, don't pass out, don't pass out, think of the food, think of the food, think of the food. _He repeated several times in his head. Lavi scowled and Allen swore his head started literally spinning. "Just ignore the looks for now, you'll blow them away any second." Fou encouraged in his ear.

"Are you sure? I don't think that this is a good idea..." Allen mumbled, not very confident now that he was in front of his favorite band. Fou patted his back roughly.

"Can't turn back now, can we?"

"Thanks for the encouragement." He whispered back harshly. Fou let go of his shoulder as they moved into position. After being announced from the booming voice through the speakers and the song they were playing, there was a couple of applause.

Allen swallowed nervously, breathing easy, counting to ten, and trying out multiple practices his friends taught him. He pretended like they were back in Fou's shitty garage, playing their last draft of music-their final piece. He flicked a few switches on his keyboard and glanced at the others, who each gave him their own sort of thumbs up. Shifu nodded, Rikei gave him a thumbs up, Lou Fa blushed, and Fou winked. He looked back at the crowd and used that huge imagination of his to make them all disappear into nothingness. It was all a blur until his fingers glided across the keyboard. Then it was like all his confidence and inspiration had rushed back in him in a single impact. After playing the notes along for ten to fifteen seconds, he lifted his chin slightly to sing into the microphone.

_"They say we are what we are  
But we don't have to be  
I'm glad to hate you  
But I do it in the best way"_

_"I'll be the watcher (watcher) of the eternal flame  
I'll be the guard dog of all you fever dreams" _

Rikei and Shifu did their background 'ah' singing, tuning their voices perfectly with Allen's. Lenalee's eyebrows shot up and she grinned. She simply loved background voices. Like Lavi used to do for their lead singer...

_"I am the sand in the bottom half of the hour glass (glass, glass)  
__I try to picture me without you but I can't"_

This was the part that the others joined in with their instruments. Their notes were somewhat simple, but with Allen's keyboard, they managed to sound absolutely _amazing._

_"Cause we could be immortals, i__mmortals  
__Just not for long, for long  
__And live with me forever now  
__You pull the blackout curtains down  
__Just not for long, for long"_

_"We could be immooooooo-immortals  
Immooooooo-immortals  
Immooooooo-immortals  
Immooooooo-immortals"  
_

The others' instruments died down to let Allen's voice flow through the auditorium, bouncing off the walls and echoing through the large building.

_"Sometimes the only payoff for having any faith  
__Is when it's tested again and again everyday"_

God, Fou just loved it when Allen's voice became rough and violent. It was unlike him, but it was so fucking _great._

_"I'm still comparing your past  
__To my future  
__It might be your wound  
__But they're my sutures"_

Once again, Rikei and Shifu sang their background parts and Lenalee was all impressed about everything. Kanda stayed silent (which was usually a good thing considering he cut sucky singers off and threw them offstage...sometimes literally). Lavi had a disapproving scowl on his face, but only because he probably thought Allen was trying to replace and upgrade from Daisya. Daisya did sing and play keyboard at the same time...Miranda looked very cheerful by their performance. She seemed more determined than usual. She loved these guys.

_"Ooooooh  
__I am the sand in the bottom half of the hourglass (glass, glass)  
__Ooooooh  
__I try to picture me without you but I can't"_

_"__Cause we could be immortals, immortals  
__Just not for long, for long  
__And live with me forever now  
__You pull the blackout curtains down  
__Just not for long, for long"_

_"We could be immooooooo-immortals  
__Immooooooo-immortals  
__Immortals  
__And live with me forever now  
__Pull the blackout curtains down"_

_"We could be immortals, immortals  
__Just not for long, for long  
__We could be immooooooo-immortals  
__Immooooooo-immortals  
__Immooooooo-immortals  
__Immooooooo-immortals"_

They all ended on the same note and the crowd erupted into applause. They snapped Allen out of his mode and he felt like he was going to pass out, breathing heavily away from the mic. "Next!" Lavi called and Allen felt whatever hope he had in his gut deflate to the negatives. Yeah. Below zero.

After getting offstage, Allen didn't hesitate to pass out.

* * *

**Songs used in order: "I Won't Give Up by Jason Mraz" and "Immortals by Fall Out Boy"**


	2. Chapter 2

**March 23rd**

"I still can't believe you clocked Lavi in the face." Allen mumbled, holding a cold pack to his eye, where he had hit it falling down. It looked more like he got sucker punched in the face by the floor. He wasn't sure what happened after he passed out, but all he could get from what was on the news was Fou flying right towards him and punching him straight out in the face. "You could get sued for that."

"What _I _can't believe is that we're having a fucking blizzard this weekend! Dude. It's fucking _March. _This snow needs to get the fuck out." She paused. "And does it look like I care? He deserved what he got."

"So why did you punch him in the face?" Allen asked for what seemed like the thirtieth time today. He looked at the others as well, hoping that they'd clear it up for him. He asked them several times alone, but none of them ever answered him.

"Just forget about it, Sprout. This is between me and Rabi."

"Lavi." Allen corrected.

"Whatever." She grumbled and glanced at him when he took the cold pack from his eye and touched it lightly, wincing. "Jesus Christ, how hard did you hit your eye anyways? There's a huge bruise. If there was another one on your other eye, you'd look like a raccoon."

"Wow. Thanks, Fou."

"I'm here any time you need me." She replied. "Anyways, how about a sleepover this Friday?"

"A sleepover? Really? You do realize that we're classified as adults now."

"Oh please, you just became an adult, like, four months ago. The others and I have _been _adults."

As much as he hated to admit it, she was right. Allen was sixteen when he met all of them. Fou was the oldest, being twenty at the time. Everyone else was nineteen. He was literally a small high school freshman hanging out with college students. Of course, Fou dropped out, but that still didn't make a difference, considering she was four years older than him. Lou Fa had actually just turned twenty two three days ago. They were all too busy getting ready for the audition to celebrate. Allen suddenly voiced this, changing the topic completely.

"Oh yeah, that's right..." Fou mumbled, looking at her friend. "We should celebrate since we didn't get the chance to. How about we all have a sleepover this weekend?" _There she goes again with the sleepovers. _

"But there's a blizzard this weekend." Rikei pointed out.

"Exactly! We'll stay in for the blizzard and then once it's over we can build a fort!" Rikei commented excitedly.

"What he said." Fou commented.

"Sure. But that's four days from now. I think we should do something today as well." Allen said, smiling. Lou Fa blushed, imagining her and the white haired teen going on a nice, romantic date together.

"You know, I'm surprised you're not bummed out." Fou suddenly said, staring at Allen suspiciously. "You just got rejected from your favorite band. Probably over some amateur." Allen blinked several times at her statement, but shrugged.

"I honestly didn't want to join to begin with, remember? It was your idea for me to join. Besides, after what happened, I don't think I'm going to be playing in front of _anyone _for awhile...that was so embarrassing..." He whispered.

"Oh great. So basically they maximized your stage fright by ten tons."

"Basically." Allen replied with a small smile. "Besides, I like them how they are, even without their lead singer. They sound just as great as always."

"Yeah, that's what I'd expect from their number one fan." Rikei chortled. Allen glared at him.

"They're a great band, okay?"

"You are a bit obsessed..." Lou Fa pointed out quietly. Allen huffed and crossed his arms.

"So what? Everyone should have some form of obsession every now and again." He commented.

"True. So, what's your plans for going out?"

"Maybe we can all go watch a movie? How about Big Hero 6? I hear that's good." Fou deadpanned at Allen's suggestion.

"I thought I was the only one obsessed with Disney movies."

"I think it's weird that _you_ are obsessed with Disney movies. You're usually cold and heartless so-OW!" Rikei whined when Fou elbowed him in the face. Allen tried to think how that was physically possible as they began to argue. Fou was so short...she had to've stood up or something...even then she would be shorter. Allen dismissed it as her being a legit ninja and skipped onto the next topic.

"So, yes or no?" He asked.

"I'm up for it." Lou Fa said quietly.

Maybe her and Allen could sit right next to her...and then he would hold her hand...and then at the end they would-

"Great! So let's get going!" Fou cheered, standing up. They all left the small cafe and walked down to the cinema to go check the times that it was playing. "Wow. My mood is officially broken. It doesn't play until tomorrow."

"What about Redbox?"

"Good idea, Shifu." Fou grinned and they walked back to a grocery store with a Redbox in it. She went straight to 'Family Movies' and checked out what was available. "Blu-ray or just regular?" She questioned.

"Regular." They all replied. None of them really cared to buy Blu-ray DVD players.

"Got it. So, whose house are we watching this at?"

"Well...Cross just recently broke the flat-screen I bought so..." Allen trailed off. Fou stared at him incredulously.

"That's the third one this month."

"Yeah...he doesn't like Wii sports. Moving on."

"See, this is why you don't have a lot of money. You buy shit and he breaks it." Fou growled.

"Well, it's not like I can just move all my stuff out in one day and find a house to rent. I don't even have a proper job. Can we get back to the point?"

"Oh. Right. Yeah, how about my house?" She insisted.

"Yeah, let's do that." The others quickly agreed. Unlike Allen, Fou was quite rich. This was probably only because her...roommate...? Relative? Whatever he was? was an inventor and sold a lot of inventions out. His name was Bak Chang, and he was actually a little famous. He offered time and time again for Allen to live there, but Allen would rather get a place by himself. He'd feel more proud that way. Bak accepted that excuse and moved on. Fou didn't let go of it so easily, but after a year, she got bored of trying to convince him. When they came over, Bak was delighted to have them, though he just shut himself in his lab again.

"I keep forgetting to ask you this, and as long as I've known you, it's surprising that it's never come up before but...what _is_ Bak to you?" Rikei asked curiously.

"Yeah, I've been wondering the same thing..." Allen mumbled. Fou raised her eyebrows.

"I never told you guys? Huh...well, he's my fiance." Everyone's jaw dropped and Allen dropped the Redbox case.

"WHAT?!" Fou gave them a strange look.

"But you...you're not...a ring...?" Lou Fa whispered.

"Oh, oops, I forgot to add this in, but, it was an arranged marriage from where I'm from. I've been engaged to him since I was...uh...like...six? Or something? Yeah. Anyways we moved away from our parents since they were so persistent on trying to get us together and we made the excuse of being alone in each others' company forever or something and now we're just roommates. But, by legal documents from where we're from, we're technically married. I think...? But yeah, I've known him since the day I was born."

"Wow..." Rikei mumbled. He suddenly looked at Allen. "Kinda awkward considering you asked her out, huh?" Allen stomped on Rikei's foot and he howled in pain. "You guys are s-so mean!" He cried. Fou snorted.

"Yeah. That was an interesting time." She mused.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU WERE ENGAGED?!" Allen shouted, a huge blush covering his face.

"Dude, you didn't even know that I was four years older than you at the time so chill the fuck out. Besides, that was a long time ago, so why does it matter now? It's not like Bak and I...actually like each other or anything."

"You hesitated." Rikei murmured, earning another jab from her elbow in his ribs. "God damn it!" He cried, crouching on the floor. "What am I, a punching bag?" He wheezed.

"Stop saying stupid things then. Now are we going to watch this movie or not?" She growled. They all nodded their heads stiffly and followed her into the living room, each sitting on one of her many couches as she put the DVD in. Rikei scooted closer to Allen.

"Say, do you still like Fou?" The brunet whispered.

"What? No!" He whispered back. "Like Fou said: that was a long time ago."

"Oh. Okay, that would suck if you did, huh?"

"Just shut up."

"Sooo, what about Lou Fa then?"

"No. I'm pretty sure I cleared it up that I'm not dating anyone ever again." He growled.

"Lame." Rikei mumbled.

"Why don't you date her?"

"Um..." Rikei slowly looked over at Shifu and Allen's jaw dropped.

"No. Way."

"Shhh, he'll hear youuu." Rikei whined.

"Well, I can say for sure that _that_ was unexpected..."

"Hey, losers. How about you shut the fuck up and watch the movie?" Fou snapped at them, interrupting their private conversation.

"Yeah!" They both replied and sat up straight, staring at the screen with blank faces.

The movie was great, but Lou Fa and the others had classes that night, so they had to return to the University, leaving Allen and Fou to play video games by themselves. Overall, Allen had a great time. He kept forgetting how fun Fou could actually be when she wasn't so violent. Well...she was violent every time he beat her in a video game, but that was besides the point. It was still fun. It seemed that his crush feelings for her had completely disappeared and he found that he was more comfortable around her than anyone else. She was his best friend, even if they did only know each other for three years. Around nine o'clock, they both grew tired, having screamed their lungs out the entire day at video games that just didn't make sense. As terrible as it sounded, it was actually a lot of fun. "So, what should we do for Lou Fa this week?"

"Maybe we can make a huge cake."

"You would just eat it all."

"Every birthday needs cake."

"What about a surprise party?"

"But she already knows when the party is."

"Maybe you can kiss her."

"That isn't funny, Fou."

"Yeah, yeah..."

They both rambled on about ideas until they were both laying on their backs on the floor and their eyes were slowly closing. Minute by minute, they rambled themselves to sleep.

**March 24th**

"Okay, guys, here's the plan: first, we make our way through this small section, then we run past the security guards, we take what we need and then we get the hell out of there." Fou whispered and each of them nodded. Allen paused and narrowed his eyes.

"You're making it sound like we're getting ready to rob a bank." Allen gave her an odd look.

"Same thing."

He was not amused.

"Not the same thing, we're just going in the mall." Allen muttered.

"A mall that banned us." Fou winked. Allen rolled his eyes.

"If the security guards catch us, we won't have enough time to shop..." Rikei murmured.

"We've got to be sly. If we get caught before we can finish our birthday shopping, then it'll be the death of us." Shifu nodded his head. Allen sweat dropped.

"You guys are being too dramatic for this. We're just-"

"Move out." Fou said quickly and Allen sighed as the two boys stood up and sneaked through the parking lot. Allen sighed and looked several ways as he made his way in through the food court. Oddly enough, there were no security guards.

Shrugging, Allen easily shopped throughout the store, buying Lou Fa small things like a few scarves (since it was _still_ cold out) and some chocolate. He liked chocolate...girls like chocolate...right? He sighed hopelessly and his nerves were itching every time he passed by Hot Topic. He wanted to go inside so bad. But, he told himself many times that this was for Lou Fa. Not himself. So, he strolled down to a jewelry store and spent whatever savings he had made. Why did all the jewelry cost so much? It was literally like wearing rocks around your neck. After having a customer help him out, he exited the store without any problems and went back to the car, glancing at the time. They were supposed to meet him out here at three...it was already almost four. He checked his phone and immediately sighed at the four messages he received.

_Fou: aw shit we were caught by security_

_Fou: AH SHIT HELP BEANSPROUT HELP WE WERE CAPTURED COME 2 HT NOW LIKE OH SHIT_

_Shifu: We are in desperate need of your assistance._

_Rikei: PLAN FAILED PLAN FAILED MAYDAY MAYDAY WE NEED BACKUP SHIT DUDE HELPPPPPP_

Allen sighed again and put his phone in his pocket, unlocking the car and throwing the stuff in there. He walked back towards the main building. There weren't any security guards around whatsoever. He could only guess where they were all at...he groaned in frustration, seeing the huge crowd around Hot Topic. _Really, Fou? We're supposed to be shopping for Lou Fa...I...I can't go in front of all those people...but who knows what'll happen if I don't. _"Excuse me, pardon me, coming through..." Allen mumbled, pushing past everyone. He sighed when he saw Fou tapping her foot impatiently as a security guard interrogated her. Allen swallowed nervously and slightly blended in until he was beside Fou. "What's going on?"

"Weeeeell...I kinda made Rikei scream and then guards came running and then they recognized us from those descriptions they took and now we're in a load of shit."

"Who are you?" The one interrogating her asked, narrowing his eyes at him. He looked clown-like in appearance with his three-way hair style and purple eyes. His teeth were so sharp it was scary...his name-tag read 'Pierrot.' Did he really expect anyone to take him seriously.

"He's just a friend." Fou answered quickly before Allen could be honest. His name had to be down on that paper for sure.

"Well 'just a friend,' either you pay for your friends' fines or else."

"Or else what?"

* * *

"I shouldn't have tested him." Allen muttered, rubbing his stomach.

"Wasn't that illegal?" Fou asked, rubbing her knuckles.

"As long as they have a reason to use force...no."

"Well at least now you have bruises to match your eye." She joked and he smacked her. She let it slide this time. Normally he would not be allowed to do that.

"That isn't funny. Did you guys manage to get anything for Lou Fa or did I get the shit beat out of me for nothing?" He growled. They all quickly nodded their heads. "Good." He sighed and laid back in his seat. "I don't feel good..." He mumbled, feeling his head.

After getting beat up pretty badly and thrown out into the parking lot, there were a lot of people watching, making him faint. Then the others left him there until he woke up because they didn't know where he put the keys, so he ended up feeling sick when he woke up. He wished that this damned weather would go away. They arrived to Fou's house and walked inside glumly. At least they had the decency to buy the wrapping paper. Lou Fa was in classes until seven and it was currently a quarter til seven so it wouldn't be long before she got out. It still would take her about half an hour to get there. Once they got inside, they immediately started wrapping their presents. It was silent for awhile and after finishing them, Lou Fa would be there in about ten minutes (or so her text said) so they all decided to hide the presents in a closet for now whilst Fou made a joke of Allen coming out of the closet. Yeah. She was a corny shit.

"I'm here!" Lou Fa exclaimed as she opened the front door.

"Awesome!" Rikei cheered. "Let's make that cake!"

"Shouldn't the cake be a surprise?" Allen questioned.

"But it's more fun making it together." Rikei said, grinning. Allen smiled back.

"I suppose you do have a point there." He smiled and they all started making the cake together.

Red velvet with strawberry icing. They used Fou's cake pans to make it three layers high. Said girl smacked Allen about thirty-two times during the whole thing every time he tried to eat icing or cake batter. He pouted at her, but continued to help make the cake. They had a small batter fight that night, making it look like there had been a bloodbath going on previously (and Fou's 'fiance' fainted when he saw the kitchen) and then they all flailed around to music (none of them but Fou knew how to dance and the only kind of dancing she was good at was dirty dancing) later on that night. Overall, the night had been a success. They managed to get Lou Fa presents and actually get the cake done. Of course, they couldn't eat it until Friday (which Allen threw a small fit over), but it turned out great with little Hershey kisses decorated here and there.

They all couldn't wait until Friday.

**March 27th**

"Woohoo! This is going to be so exciting!" Rikei said loudly as he gazed outside at the heavy snowfall. "Snow, snow, snow, snow~"

"You sound like a little kid." Fou commented as she snacked on some popcorn. Shifu was studying for their next big Chemistry test, Lou Fa was chowing down on Fou's popcorn as well while Allen sat there with his treasured guitar in his hands, watching Rikei amusingly. "Seriously. It's freezing balls outside and we might not even be able to open the door. What's to be excited about. Don't we have to wait until the top layer melts or until it at least sleets before being able to build in it?"

"Stop crushing my hopes." Rikei whispered.

"It's Fou. What more do you expect?" Allen added in with a grin. He received a kernel to the face at that one. "Ow." He commented dryly. She smirked and looked back at Rikei.

"Anyways, watching it fall isn't going to make it fall any faster. Get your ass over here so we can hang." She snapped and scooted into the newly formed circle.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming." He muttered. Allen carefully handed Fou the guitar.

"Why do I have to go first?" She scowled.

"Because. You just do." He replied.

"That's a stupid excuse." He simply grinned in response. "Fine." She muttered and started strumming the notes to 'Crushcrushcrush by Paramore' to start off their night. They each played their favorite songs, taking turns when passing the guitar around. They each felt very honored that Allen would allow them to play his guitar. They all remembered when they first met him and he wouldn't let them _touch _his guitar. It was his turn to play again and he began strumming a song he felt inspired to write ever since he found out he had a terrible case of stage fright. Of course, it was the first song he didn't show the others, so he felt that now was the time to show them. They all went quiet, hearing the unfamiliar notes play through the kitchen.

_"Fumbling his confidence  
__And wondering why the world has passed him by  
__Hoping that he's bent for more than arguments  
__And failed attempts to fly, fl-" _

_Ding dong. _

They all deadpanned when the doorbell rang. "Who the _fuck_ could be visiting at this time of night? Well, in this weather more like it." She muttered, standing up. Allen sighed, his inspiration running right into the gutter and he passed his guitar to Shifu, deciding he didn't want to sing anymore. Shifu shrugged and put it carefully in it's case, closing it just as gently. They heard a large commotion from the doorway and the four of them peeked their head around the wall that blocked the view of the doorway.

"No way...is that really?"

"What the hell?"

"I know you might be grudging against them as of now, but you might want to go stop her before she does some real damage. Unless you'd rather they never spoke ever again." Shifu informed, placing his hand on Allen's shoulder.

_Innocence _was at Fou's door, covered in snow and currently arguing with said girl. Shifu was right though, she just might do something drastic if he didn't step in. He quickly scurried over and grabbed her arm just as she was about to clock a certain redhead in the face...again..."F-Fou, let's not do anything stupid now..." He said softly. Lenalee blinked several times.

"You're...!"

"Come on, let's not let this night go to ruin, thing of Lou Fa." He mumbled.

"Fine. But they're not coming inside." She hissed and glared at him. Allen paused.

"I'm sure if we were in the same position..." He trailed off and shook his head. "Scratch that, but you know, Fou, what goes around comes around..."

"Oh whatever, only because _you_ asked though. I'm not doing shit for them. Like, ever." Allen sighed with relief as she stormed into the house.

"What a-"

"Don't say it." Allen growled at Lavi. He scowled at him and invited himself inside along with Lenalee and the others. Miranda sent Allen an apologetic look as she followed them all inside. He closed the door softly and looked behind him at them. They occasionally looked back and Allen found that he couldn't look any of them in the eye as he made his way back to the kitchen. Lenalee toured herself around the house, occasionally picking up picture frames and staring at them, also reading the back. Kanda sat on the couch, refusing to speak, Lavi seemed a bit lost and unsure of what to do, as was Miranda. They all tried to ignore the murmuring going on in the kitchen.

"You're too soft." Fou grumbled towards the youngest of their crew.

"I suppose."

"If you guys don't stop fighting, I'm going to burst into random singing and you're not going to like it." Rikei interrupted.

"I don't know, my range of music goes pretty far." Allen said, grinning.

"Yeah, it has to if you like what _they _play." Fou mumbled bitterly.

"WHY YOU GOTTA BE SO RUUUUDE" Rikei screamed.

"Jesus Fucking Christ, shut the hell up I _hate _that song." She snapped. The brunet beamed at her.

"Are we done arguing then?"

"You suck at solving problems, Rikei." Allen sweat dropped. He shrugged in response.

"So...now what?" Lou Fa asked softly, watching Allen gently polish his guitar as if he was cradling a fragile baby.

"It's your birthday, you choose." Allen replied.

"Well...maybe...could you..." They all expected the worst things possible to go flying out her mouth. "Fou...you own a piano, don't you?" She asked quietly.

"Uh, yeah, one we use for, like, decoration." She replied.

"Is it real?"

"Well, yeah, but we still don't use it."

"Well...Allen, can you..."

"I'm not playing anything." _Especially not in front of them. _He thought, glancing towards the living room. Lou Fa pouted.

"That isn't going to get you anywhere, dear. Allen might be a huge softy, but he's also the demon of all puppy dog eyes." Fou informed.

"I'm flattered, Fou, really." The younger teen said amusingly.

"Drinks, anyone?" Rikei asked, offering them cups.

"Holy shit, I didn't even see you disappear." Fou mumbled, staring at him approvingly.

"That's because I'm a ninja."

"Sure you are." She replied, grabbing a cup.

"Rude." He stated and Allen took his own cup, thanking Rikei quietly. Just as he took a swig, Miranda, burst into the kitchen very loudly.

"MR. WALKER!" Allen spat out his drink and looked up at her incredulously.

"Y-yes?"

"We...we would like you to...to...to...um..." Her confidence flew out the window.

"To...?" He and Fou gestured for her to continue.

"To...to..." Her knees started to shake as all eyes were on her. Lenalee poked her head in the kitchen as well with a sigh. Allen properly took a drink of his cola this time and beamed at the taste, wondering what Rikei put in it to make it taste so good. So, he kept drinking.

"I knew she couldn't do it, so I'm here for backup. About Lavi's rude behavior...well, we apologize and we would like to know if you would reconsider on joining our band." Allen and the others choked on their drinks.

"Whoa, whoa, _whoa. _First, you want nothing to do with him and then you want him to up and join again? What's going on?" She growled.

"Honestly, I thought the entire performance you guys did was amazing." Lenalee complimented and continued, "It was just that the performance brought a few unlovely memories to a few of us, so he acted out of emotion. We never even chose an artist to begin with because there just...wasn't enough talent. But you, Allen, you're-"

"Forget it." Allen interrupted and sipped his drink again. "It's impossible now. You should have thought about the consequences before you went and brutally destroyed my confidence."

"That was uncharacteristically blunt of you to say." Shifu commented.

"It's true." He replied with a shrug.

"I don't believe I understand..." Lenalee said quietly, Miranda nodded in agreement to her confusion. Fou cut it.

"Well, thanks to you assholes, Allen stage fright multiplied by like, three hundred, so, he can't perform. Thanks for that, by the way." She smiled sweetly.

"You...have stage fright...?" Miranda asked quietly and looked and Lenalee. Lenalee returned the look.

"Well, so does Miranda. And she can speak in front of large crowds. If you'll just let us, we can help you."

"Impossible." Fou commented. "I've been trying for three years and you guys think you can do it so easily? Yeah, no."

"Can you just...give us a chance?" Lenalee begged. "Please? If we don't get any help...we won't be able to perform anymore. Daisya was a lot of influence on us. Can you please..._please_ help us?"

_He's going to take the bait. _Fou thought, rubbing a hand down her face. "Look, you persistent-"

"I guess...it wouldn't hurt..." Allen interrupted.

"God damn it." Fou groaned and fell on the floor. "I was too late." They all gave her strange looks. Lenalee shook her head and let a huge smile cross her face before tackling Allen into a hug.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She cheered.

"She's touching me..." Allen whispered. "She's. Touching. Me." Fou rolled her eyes and grabbed the back of Lenalee's shirt, yanking her off.

"Rule number one: no touching the babe."

"What did I tell you about calling me-"

"Yeah, yeah, shut it. The next rule is that _I _get to go wherever _he _goes. If you can't follow those two rules, you can count _us_ out. Are we clear?"

"Crystal!" Lenalee cheered and grabbed Allen's wrist, dragging him into the living room.

"Did she _not _just hear what I said?! No touching!" Fou growled and followed her into the living room.

"Mission success!" She cheered, dragging Miranda with her other hand.

"Great." Lavi commented and Fou's eye twitched.

"However," Lavi looked up at the sound of Lenalee's hesitation. She instantly let go of Allen's wrist. "No touching and he comes with a package." She informed, pointing at Fou.

"Great. A temperamental wacko." The redhead mumbled. Lenalee sent an apologetic look at the two. Allen didn't care, really. If he could help his favorite band get back on their feet, well, that's all it took for him to try.

Honestly, he couldn't wait.

* * *

**The first 4 9/10 lyrics to the song Allen was about to sing was Meant To Live by Switchfoot and will most likely reveal itself later down the road. Many thanks goes out to Hanashi o suru, OtakuShipping, Midnifa, and Guest for reviewing. Without them, I was unsure of whether to continue so thank you. For each chapter I plan on having three different dates. Should I up the dates or keep them down? Suggestions are very much welcomed. Thank you for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**March 28th**

Allen felt like a nervous wreck. He currently stood outside of one of Lavi's residences where they would be practicing. Lenalee gave him the address and a key just in case no one answered the door at ten o'clock in the morning. She previously informed him that they would be practicing from ten in the morning to five in the evening (which seemed a bit intense to Allen, but he never had been in a band before so maybe that was normal) and that it would be at one of the many, many places where Lavi would stay. Apparently he was filthy rich and owned houses in plenty of difference places, including other states and countries. It irked Allen slightly considering his financially deprived lifestyle, but he could deal. What was worse about standing in front of the huge mansion-like place was that Fou wasn't with him. She said she had something else to attend to before she dropped by. That made meeting them all the more awkward. Not only that, he had to use his own instrument and it was a painfully complicated process getting it over here. Then again, maybe they thought it would be more comfortable for him to use his own instrument.

Who knows.

Gathering up as much courage as he could manage, he lifted his fist and landed a few quiet knocks. _What the hell am I thinking? They're not gong to hear that. Maybe I should just use the key...but then that would be like intruding, wouldn't it? It's not like I come here on a daily basis so the house doesn't really belong to me or anything, besides-_Allen's thoughts were cut short when the door flew open. He was so glad it wasn't a swing open door. He would have been thrown right off the porch. It was Kanda who answered the door and Allen began to think that he had super-hearing or something. "Um...good morning...I uh..."

"Where's your partner?" He asked rudely.

"Oh...she, uh...she had to go do something...I'm not sure...probably something dealing with her fiance."

"...you two aren't dating?" He asked, a bit surprised (not that his features showed it)

"Um, no...?"

"Then why the fuck...you know what, forget it. Just get your scrawny ass inside." This man reminded him vaguely of Cross, the guardian he hadn't had any contact with for two years. Allen never imagined he had to deal with his twin.

"Right..." He said slowly and stepped inside, closing the door quietly and looking around at the large house in awe as he followed Kanda around. It was so...huge...compared to his little rut, it was amazing. Even Fou's house seemed small in comparison. Kanda noticed this, but didn't comment on it. He walked into the practice room (which was huge, mind you) and Allen couldn't keep his eyes off of all the instruments around the room. The room itself was huge. On one side, there was a place where the instruments were, another section looked to be used for recording, and then the last section of it had a large couch with a flat screen TV hooked against the wall with a mini-fridge next to it.

"Oi, shithead." Kanda spoke up and both Allen and Lavi looked up at him. He tossed the redhead a can of cola and the redhead grinned.

"Thanks, Yuu."

"Don't fucking call me that." Kanda replied easily and slumped down next to him. Allen stood behind them awkwardly and decided to adore the instruments around the room. He took quite a liking to one of the acoustics strung on the wall. It was the exact kind that he had. It did look a little worn, but other than that, it was brand new.

"Gibson CF-100E Vintage Acoustic β?" Lavi questioned, not even looking up from his can of soda. He did glance at him from the side later on. Allen stood up straight, feeling a bit odd bending over to look at it.

"Oh...yeah...I have one as well." He commented, looking back at it and lightly running his finger down the strings. If he wasn't wearing gloves, he was pretty sure Lavi would bitch at him or something.

"How?" The redhead asked, a small laugh. Allen frowned at him.

"My father played a bit of music for awhile...he passed it down to me." He knew very well how expensive this specific guitar was, especially vintage ones. They could get really high up there, depending on their looks.

"What's his name?" Lavi asked. Allen paused and scowled at the dust on his glove before rubbing his two fingers together.

"Why does it-" He started but the door suddenly swung open, causing him to jump and turn around quickly. Relief flooded through him at the sight of Lenalee. He felt that maybe it wouldn't be as awkward with her around.

"Oh, hey, Allen. Oi, Lavi, you forgot to buy chips." She glowered.

"Oops? I don't shop much, okay?"

"Whatever, anyways, what do you think of the place, Allen?" She asked brightly.

"It's nice." Allen replied with a small smile. One that seemed a bit too strained.

"Great. I had a few ideas for it myself. The whole section thing. Brilliant, don't you think?" She grinned.

"Yeah." He answered simply, awkwardly rolling on the balls of his feet.

"So...instrument?" She asked.

"Mm. Fou said she was going to bring it with her. She should be here in a few minutes...unless she gets lost." Allen added in, remembering that she borrowed _his _GPS, which sometimes had a worse sense of direction than he did. It was too expensive to update the maps or buy a new model. For his pocket anyways. Being financially deprived did that. If his guitar didn't mean so much to him, he was sure Cross would have pawned it off years and years ago.

"Lost?" Lenalee inquired. "You couldn't bring it over yourself?"

"Well, considering I don't have a car..." He trailed off.

"Ah." She hummed. "I know that feeling." She agreed with a nod. "My brother refuses to let me drive until I turn twenty-one."

"Sounds rough." Allen commented. Awkward silence settled over them.

"Why don't you have a car?" Lenalee asked.

Allen really didn't want to tell them that he was nearly dirt-poor, so he made up some hopefully-believable lie.

"Oh, I don't really know how to drive, so, I never bothered with it..."

"You never had anyone teach you?" Lenalee asked, cocking her head to the side. Allen shook his head.

"What about your supposed musical father?" Lavi asked, sipping from his can. Allen resisted the urge to glare at him. He also resisted the urge to frown. He couldn't show sadness in front of them. Never.

"No, he didn't teach me."

"Yet he teaches you music? Someone needs to get their priorities straight."

"Well I'm sure if he was alive he'd be able to." Allen muttered, crossing his arms. Lavi blinked several times, ignoring Lenalee's glare. _Oops? _He thought. He wasn't a stranger to that kind of thing, though. Hell, his parents pretended like he didn't even exist. Allen couldn't have been through anything worse than he did.

"_Anyways,"_ Lenalee cut in. "Why don't you try texting your girlfriend?" She asked innocently.

"Uh. Fou isn't my girlfriend." Allen informed. "And if I did then she would text while driving and that is dangerous." He added. Lavi chuckled softly to himself whilst taking another sip of cola.

It was good that Allen had a surplus amount of patience.

"Okay, well, while we're waiting, how about you sit down and tell us about yourself?" Lenalee asked, walking over to the couch, insisting that he follow her. Being polite as possible, he followed her instruction and sat down.

"What is there to tell?" He questioned.

"Like...your likes, dislikes, hobbies, goals, that sort." She explained.

"Likes...um..." Allen hummed to himself.

"Other than music." She intercepted before he could bring it up. He felt a bit dizzy, having everyone's eyes on him, but ignored the feeling. What did he like?

"Hm...I like video games. Does that count?" They all sweat dropped.

"Well there's something you and Lavi have in common, anything else?"

"He likes food. Adores it even." All of their heads swiveled around to see Fou standing at the doorway.

"How did you get in?" Lavi asked. She held up a black key with a light green skull on it. "Copied Allen's key while he wasn't looking."

"Wh..." Allen decided to not even ask.

"Well, now that you're here, I suppose we could start practice...but...has anyone seen Miranda?" Lenalee asked. The boys shrugged. "Kanda, can you go call her? I still have a few things I want to discuss with Allen and I highly doubt you want to be in the conversation."

"Whatever." He grumbled and walked out of the room. Fou strutted over and sat down next to Allen casually, extending her arm out around his shoulders.

"Anyways, as far as likes go, it's majorly food, music, video games, exercise. Dislikes people touching him, car accidents, drunkards that force him to make money." Allen couldn't help but let out a soft laugh at that last one.

"Um. Did I miss something?" Lavi questioned.

"Obviously. Let's see...what else, what else...oh yeah, he likes boys." Allen elbowed her in the gut.

"Can you _not?" _

"Yeah, yeah, I'm kidding, I'm kidding." She paused for effect. "Kinda." She grinned at the look Allen gave her. "What else did you want to know about?"

"What kind of music are you into?"

"All kinds, really." Allen answered before Fou could open up her big mouth.

"Mostly depressing." She whispered and he glared at her.

"Okay...random question: have you ever been in a relationship?" Lenalee asked.

"I don't see what that has to do with anything, but yes."

"And you're not anymore?" Lavi butt in.

"Yeah."

"Bummer. Let's see, what else is there?" The pig tailed girl hummed.

"Aha! I found something he dislikes. Love." Fou said proudly.

"Um...?" Lenalee trailed off.

"Long story." Allen mumbled.

"What, do you plan on being-"

"Is everything that comes out of your mouth rude?" Fou retorted before Lavi could say anything. The redhead glared at her; she didn't hesitate to glare right back.

"You know, I recall a certain someone punching me and never getting any payback." He growled.

"What, do you want to take revenge or some cheesy, stupid shit like that?" She asked, a snarl on her lips.

"Can we not do this?" Lenalee requested.

"I'll hold her back if you hold him." Allen mused. Lenalee smiled a bit, seeing him open up just a bit more. She was pretty sure that he wouldn't have opened up at all if Fou wasn't here though. Still, they were slightly progressing.

"She's going to be late." Kanda suddenly spoke up. They all looked over at him. "Apparently there was a small fire in her house and her clock was damaged a little so she's throwing a bitchfit about it." He explained and sat down next to Allen, propping his feet up on the table. Allen stiffened and scooted away as slyly as he could away from him.

"How late is she going to be?" Lenalee asked worriedly.

"Yeah. Doesn't she know we've got a noob to teach?" Lavi asked rhetorically.

"That's it." Fou growled and lunged for the redhead. Allen quickly intercepted her and grabbed her around her stomach.

"Fou! Behave!"

"I'm gonna strangle him! Let me go!" She snapped.

"I don't think I will." Allen smiled.

"Why not? He's being a little bitch! Just cause you're way better than their previous-" Allen slapped a hand over her mouth.

"Stop acting childish."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What the _fuck_ were you about to say?" Lavi asked, standing up abruptly.

"Maybe we shouldn't hold practices on weekends..." Lenalee whispered. On weekends, everyone slept in, not having to worry about everything. Waking up early in the morning on a Saturday...well, it just sucked. Lavi's been on edge since Daisya was gone and it was beginning to get worse. She thought that Allen would help, but having Fou around...it wasn't helping. She obviously wasn't as patient as Allen was.

"Stop...moving..." Allen grumbled, dodging her flailing limbs.

"No, I want to hear what she has to say." Lavi growled.

"No, you really don't." Allen replied with a halfhearted smile.

"Allen...what did you think of Daisya?" Lenalee asked bluntly. The whole room went silent. Noticing the sudden tension, Fou stopped struggling.

"What do you mean?" Allen asked curiously.

"I mean...obviously if you wanted to audition, you listened to some of our old music, right?"

"Well, yeah..."

"So...what do you think of him?"

"Well...I...am a bit confused about why he isn't...here anymore...but, I think that he was great at what he did. Honestly, I don't think I could ever measure up to who he was. Besides, he's been with you for longer than I probably will, so he'll always be special to you guys...not that I know what he was to you guys."

"I see..." She said softly and smiled. "That's good to know." She looked over at Lavi, only to see that he wasn't looking at any of them. Maybe it would take awhile before he found out what happened to Daisya, but somehow, Allen found that he didn't mind. As long as he could stay with them for awhile, he found that he wouldn't mind their secrets. He kept secrets as well. Someday, they'd find out about them.

He didn't think it would be so soon.

**April 2nd**

How Allen survived April 1st (aka, April Fools Day), he had no idea. Fou, Lavi, and Lenalee had been on a pranking spree. Kanda's hair turned out a dark lavender purple (to which Fou compared it to Gakupo from Vocaloid), Fou's hair turned out pink (she was angry because people thought her hair was pink in general), Lavi sounded like a squeaky toy, and Lenalee's feet turned black. What happened to Allen? Nothing. It was strange. And he was still suspicious. It wasn't April Fools Day anymore, but it wouldn't be the first time that Fou pranked him the day after so he still had to keep his guard up. "Yo."

"AH!" Allen screamed, jumping away from the offending woman. Fou gave him the strangest look and held up a med kit.

"Dude. Chill the fuck out. I'm just here to patch up some bruises. Knowing you, you'd smash them and make them worse.

"Oh...okay...is there anything in it?" He asked slowly as she opened it up. It was just regular medical stuff.

"What? You think I'm gonna prank you? Dude, I might be cruel, but I'm not so much of a bitch to fuck around with someone who's had it rough the past few months."

"Uh...thanks?" He said slowly as she helped patch up some bruises on his legs.

"No prob, Shorty." Allen decided to ignore the bait and looked around her house. "Where's Bak?"

"He had some science evaluation or some shit like that." She answered.

"Oh..." He paused, watching her dab a cold rag around the fading bruise on his eye. "You're acting strange today."

"Only towards you, I assure." She admitted.

"Why?"

"Well, for one, you just seemed a little down more than usual lately; not to mention you've started wearing this thing again." She explained, pulling at his gray plaited hoodie. It was made with all different types of gray and a dark navy blue color. The inside was quite comfortable and fuzzy. It was light gray and lead to the hood as well.

"Oh..."

Okay, so maybe the past few nights were a bit more stressful than usual. Not only had Innocence been acting a lot more rude, but he also had a nightmare about the reason he abandoned all hopes of love: Narain. Narain was his ex-boyfriend back when he was twelve. A few months after Allen turned fifteen, Narain died in a car accident, sending him into a spiral of depression. That was around the time he met Fou and the others. It was because of them that he was helped back onto his feet. But, every once in awhile, he had that same nightmare and would hug the hoodie gifted to him by Narain close to his chest, hoping to catch his scent. He never wanted to believe Narain had actually died. But he did.

The story was a short one.

They weren't actually in the car. It seemed that Narain's sister had finally passed away from her sickness and that he was so depressed he didn't bother looking both ways when they crossed the street together. Usually, he was so stressed on that. He would sometimes even shout at Allen if he didn't look both ways. Allen suspected that he did look both ways since he was crossin; but, his mind was clouded by sadness. After hearing a blaring noise and looking up, the only thing Narain could think of was to push Allen out of the way. Still, debris from the car flew at him, even if it wasn't as bad as what happened to Narain, he bled profusely. All he felt was despair that day. Every time he saw people crossing the street, he shuddered. Every so often, he would put the hoodie back on and sit in silence, thinking about Narain and wherever he was now, hoping that wherever he was, he was happy.

"You're doing it again." Fou said, dragging him out of his daze. He shook his head.

"Sorry."

"You know, it's alright to mourn every once and awhile...but this is jut outright unhealthy. You can talk about it if you want."

"I've talked about it with you several times."

"No, no, I mean...with someone in your situation."

"Like who?" Allen asked with a roll of his eyes.

"I don't know..." She sighed and closed the med kit. Allen had been so into his daze that he didn't even notice she finished up. "Let's just head to practice."

"Alright." Allen mumbled, following the girl. He decided to just leave his instrument there so they wouldn't have to keep dragging it back and forth (a bold move for him, Fou thought, since he was very protective of his instruments).

They walked into a very weird situation.

Apparently there was a hole that opened up in the floor and hid a secret Jacuzzi underneath. Currently Lavi was pulling at Kanda's still slightly purple hair whilst said main was punching him in the face. Lenalee was giggling and staring at them a little too intently. "Um...aren't you guys supposed to be practicing?" Fou questioned.

"We decided to take the day off. Not to mention I need to soak my feet in chlorine since they're black." Lenalee informed, putting her leg up on the floor.

"Well in that case, I'm outta here." Fou said. She paused and turned around. "Allen, I think you should stay. Get to know them or something."

"I suppose. But I'm not getting in."

"No one said you had to." Lavi replied, sipping his coke. Lenalee shrugged, smiling as she relaxed against the edge of it. Kanda turned up his music to his headphones and laid his head back against the headrest. Miranda was also in, but she looked very insecure about being in a hot tub of water with other young adults. Allen sat on the couch and pulled out his phone, browsing through his messages and old messages. He stared at Narain's name in his phone for a long time, wondering why he never deleted it. Someone else probably had his number by now...they all sat in silence, simply relaxing.

"It feels great. You should join us." Lenalee said. Allen opened his eyes and looked over to see her setting her chin on her arms as she gazed at him.

"I'm fine, thank you."

"Just leave him be. If he doesn't want to, he doesn't want to." Lavi muttered, flicking water around and occasionally blowing bubbles.

"Come on, Allen." She whined.

"No." He replied flatly. "Besides, I don't have any...swimwear..." He said it slowly, unsure of what to call it.

"Just take your clothes off, same thing." She grinned.

"Um, no thanks. I'll keep them on, thank you."

"What, are you blindingly pale or something? Ugly scar? We've seen it all." Lavi murmured.

"Yeah, what he said. See?" Lenalee propped her legs up, showing that they had small hexagonal skin designs scattered around them. She also gestured to the black scar (was it a scar? It seemed more like a tattoo...not that Allen had any room to talk) on Kanda's chest. Allen still felt uncomfortable. Lenalee had a mischievous smile on her face and she exited the hot tub, walking toward him in just a bikini. Lavi noted how Allen didn't seem threatened by that at all. Her boobage, that is. Not that she had very much to begin with, but still. A girl in a bikini? Guys looked whether they wanted to or not. Hell, even girls did. He did notice how he freaked whenever she shed off his jacket. "Don't want to get this wet, do you?"

"Well, no, but I'm not getting in, really." Lavi raised an unamused eyebrow as she backed him towards the hole. That was definitely dangerous.

"Come _on_, it'll be nice. I promise." She smiled. Lavi's eyes narrowed, noticing that if he were to fall right now...he'd fall on him.

"That isn't the-" He let out a loud shout, falling backwards into the hot water, hitting his head against Lavi's chest. "Ow, hot, hot, hot, hot!" He shouted, flailing around.

"That's the point." Lenalee laughed. "Now take off these clothes, it'll feel better that way."

"You're a demon, Lena." Lavi glowered as he looked down at Allen, who was laying in his lap. He did notice through the white, now transparent, shirt that his left arm was discolored. "Whoa, what's _this?" _Lavi said with a curious smile as he lifted his left arm. Allen immediately yanked his arm away.

"I told you I don't like people touching me!" He snapped.

"You're the one sitting on my lap." Lavi pointed out.

Allen grew as red as Lavi's hair and immediately jumped out of the hot tub, tracking water everywhere. Lenalee pouted as he grabbed his hoodie and rushed into the bathroom.

"Deeeemooon." Lavi sang and laughed when she kicked his leg.

"You shouldn't have touched it. He wouldn't have ran off." She growled.

"Yes he would've." Lavi replied casually. "Although...I am curious now."

"Of course, you're always curious about bodily disfigures. Like your eye, Kanda's chest, and my legs." He shrugged. The only slightly normal one was Miranda. The only thing that wasn't normal about her was that she was obsessed with clocks for whatever reason.

"I can't help it. It's just interesting."

"Too bad you'll never see what Allen has then, huh?" She pestered. Lavi pursed his lips.

"I know what you're trying to do and it's not working." He replied. She huffed.

"Fine. But can you at least get him a fresh pair of clothes? You have too many anyways."

"_SHE SAID I DON'T HATE YOU BUT I JUST WANT TO SAVE YOU WHILE THERE'S STILL SOMETHING LEFT TO SAVE~!_" Fou burst through the door, singing loudly. They all stared at her incredulously.

"Didn't you leave?" Lenalee asked slowly.

"Yup! But I forgot..." She paused and looked around curiously. "Where's the Short Stack?" Lenalee jerked her thumb towards the bathroom. "Oh lovely. I should have known you assholes would have done something." She muttered and stormed past them to the bathroom, opening it and slamming it closed when she got inside. The others looked between each other curiously. _This is the first and last time I'm leaving you alone with those cunts. _She thought, helping Allen to his feet.

Or so she thought.

**April 4th**

Surprisingly enough, the last two days of practice went pretty well. No one argued, they taught Allen the basics of their music, gave him some pieces to look over while he was at home and even let him use their keyboard (to which he tuned himself since it was majorly different than his own) so he could take his home. He unwillingly gave them Fou's address since he informed that he's barely ever at his own house. They questioned why, and he lied, saying that it was lonely there. It was somewhat true...it was the weekend so he could relax without anyone bothering him. Besides, he was sure that the others would want to spend their weekend doing something together. Miranda cancelled practice for all weekends to come so they didn't have to worry about practice.

So now, here Allen stood now, singing in the shower.

_"Manage me, I'm a mess  
__Turn a page, I'm a book half unread  
__I wanna be laughed at, laughed with, just because  
__I wanna feel weightless and that should be enough"_

The first time Fou found out, she was at his house and pestered him about it, embarrassing him. Then, he stopped singing in the shower for the longest time until she approached him about it and said it was okay to do it and that she liked hearing him sing, causing him to start up his singing once again. She wondered why he sang in the shower though. Not many people did. There wasn't even any music to sing to...so how could he just do it, not knowing whether he was in time or not? She shrugged it off and continued playing Mario Party by herself, turning Allen's "Player 2" into "Computer." She hummed along with Allen's singing and wondered if he ever danced in the shower. _Nah, that's too dangerous. _She thought with a grin as she came up first on the dueling scoreboard.

_"Well I'm stuck in this fucking rut  
__Waiting on a secondhand pick-me-up  
__And I'm over getting older"_

Then the doorbell rang.

_"If I could just find the time  
__Then I would never let a day go by  
__I'm over getting old_

_Who could that be? _Fou wondered as she got up to go answer the door. She blinked several times to see Lenalee standing there hesitantly. "Hey..." She greeted.

"The fuck are you doing here?" Fou asked rudely.

"Well, actually, it was Miranda's idea to..." Lenalee trailed off. "What is that noise?"

"Allen's singing in the shower." Fou informed, leaning against the door frame. "He does it a lot, don't judge. Seriously. If you do, he'll never sing in the shower again. I've experienced it myself."

"I'm not judging." Lenalee laughed. "Lavi does that too."

_"Maybe it's not my weekend but it's gonna be my year_  
_And I'm so sick of watching while the minutes pass as I go nowhere_  
_And this is my reaction to everything I fear_  
_'Cause I've been going crazy, I don't wanna waste another minute here"_

"It's odd. They have so much in common, yet Lavi hates him...oh well, anyways, what did you want again?" She asked.

"Lavi doesn't-" Lenalee started.

"Shut. Up. Just tell me what your idea is." Fou muttered bitterly.

"Right, sorry. Miranda said that maybe it'd be a good idea to spend the day together. Get to know each other...since...last time it didn't work out so well."

"Haha. No." Fou said and started to close the door when Lenalee stuck her foot in.

"We already made reservations." She said, pausing. "For the both of you."

"Oh? Keep talkin'."

* * *

"I can't believe you made plans without me...and with _them_ no less." Allen grumbled, drying his hair.

"Hey, what can I say, I haven't been to a fancy hotel in a long time." Fou grinned, texting the others so they'd get jealous. Others being Rikei, Lou Fa, and Shifu. Shifu didn't really care, Rikei thought it was romantic, and Lou Fa was jealous because she automatically assumed they'd have a room together. "Besides, it's just the weekend."

"Yeah, and start Monday morning, I'm going to have to practice with them. I won't have any...what's it called? Me-time." Fou let out a snort at that.

"You don't _need_ any 'me-time', if you got me-time, you'd end up getting hit by a car over depression."

"You're a real help, Fou." Allen drawled; but he knew that this was her way of caring and adjusted to it.

"I know~" She said and tied on some platform boots. "Are we going or what? I'm so excited. I hear they're ordering room service and they have a pool and exercise area and even a massage area. This is gonna be _great. _We're gonna live like rich kids!" She chirped happily.

"Yeah. Great." Allen muttered, throwing a few extra pairs of clothes in his bag.

"Besides, you can, like, work out or something." She dismissed. "You like that exercise stuff."

"I suppose. As long as I"m not in a room with..."

"...Lavi." Lenalee answered, smiling. Fou held a hand to her mouth and resisted the urge to laugh. Kanda turned the screamo music up just a bit more, ignoring their conversation. He could tell when there was about to be an argument and this was it.

"If you don't mind me asking, _why?" _He asked, emphasizing the word 'why' as politely as he could. Lavi wasn't listening, choosing to stick earphones in his ears to block out his best friend's horrible taste in music.

"Well, we reserved a room for Miranda and I, Fou and Kanda, and Lavi and you. Miranda wouldn't feel comfortable being in a room with someone other than me, Kanda isn't really...into...the whole flirting thing, you're too close around Fou and we want you to open up to us a little, so we roomed you with Lavi. Lavi would probably try something flirtatious if he was left alone in a room with a girl. It's worse when he's drunk. He's the most flirty drunk I've ever met. He's even flirted with me-"

"Wait, you wouldn't room Allen and I because we're 'too close'?" Fou asked, growling.

"Yeah...we want him to open up to us...sorry." She apologized before pulling out a schedule and map, handing them out to them. "The plan is to visit as many places as we can before the two-day trip is over. We never usually went out as much and Miranda pointed out that if we start getting around some more, news will spread around that we're back on the charts. New singer and all." She informed. Allen looked at the schedule, narrowing his eyes. This only left him a few hours of exercising. _Who needs sleep. _He mused to himself. "There's also some type of convention going on and I've been dying to check it out." She grinned. Allen rolled his eyes. He knew exactly how that was like, being around Fou for so long.

"So, how long before we get there?" He asked, looking down at the map of the city. These words were so small. _I'm getting lost for sure._ He predicted sullenly.

"Just a few minutes, actually. We'll get there, check in, drop our stuff off, then go to the candy wonderland place or whatever it's called." Lenalee informed.

"Fun." Fou commented, gazing at the schedule.

Today was going to be a long day.

* * *

"My legs are on fire..." Allen whispered as they all piled into the rented vehicle.

"For the first and possibly last time, I can agree with you." Lavi muttered. He paused. "Why did we choose to go to so many places again? My head is on fire." The older held a hand to his forehead, wiping excess sweat away. It was warm to him, but maybe his hands were warm to begin with. By habit, Allen removed his right glove and pressed the back of his hand to Lavi's forehead, switching to his palm occasionally before putting his glove back on.

"Yup. You've got a fever." They all stared at him incredulously. _He just willingly touched him, skin to skin. Holy shit, he must be out of it. _Fou thought and shook her head. It seemed like all of them were out of it though. Miranda was on the edge of tears from exhaustion. After buckling up, Allen laid down across the seat, putting his feet up. The only person to sit beside him was Fou and she was the one who allowed him to rest his head on her as he rested his eyes. He wasn't necessarily sleeping, but he did feel relaxed when Fou began to entangle her fingers through his hair. She wasn't often soft like this, so he took advantage of it when he could.

"Are you guys sure you're not dating?" Lenalee asked, watching them closely.

"I have a fiance. I live with him. Name's Bak." Fou informed.

"Really? My brother's friend's name is Bak..."

"Good for you." Lenalee's interest was quickly shot to the gutter when Fou mumbled that. She shrugged and turned towards the road.

The trip to the hotel was silent and no one said a word. Still, Allen did feel like he got to know a little more about Innocence. They weren't so bad as he thought them to be. Yeah, they played great music, but he honestly agreed with Fou when she called them a 'bunch of asshats'. Now, seeing them interact like regular people, if not like high school kids, he was beginning to have second thoughts. Maybe they weren't so bad. Maybe it was because Daisya was gone that they were always on edge. Yes. That _had _to be it. He wanted to know...he wanted to know so badly. But he felt like he'd be intruding on their personal space if he asked. He's only known them for, what? Two weeks?

"If you don't mind me asking," Fou started, looking down at Allen as she did so. She could tell he was awake, but she felt like helping him right now. She knew he was dying of curiosity when it came to Daisya because she was curious as well and she didn't even _like_ Innocence. "Since we _are_ in the band, I think we have a right to know...but, what happened to Daisya?"

"He died." Lavi answered coldly. Allen's eyes flew open.

"What?" He asked, surprised.

"No one knows, so don't feel left out..." Lenalee said softly. "Our families and us are the only ones who know. So...we'd appreciate it if you wouldn't speak of it." Fou nodded at her request.

"So, what was he to you? Besides Kanda's brother that is."

"How did you-" Kanda began, but Lenalee held her hand up to silence him.

"It's...he was our childhood friend. We grew up with him...and now that he's gone...it just feels like a piece of us is missing. Yes, he was Kanda's brother, he was my neighbor...and Lavi's...um..." She looked at him.

"I don't care, go ahead." He said, waving at her dismissively.

"Boyfriend." She finished.

"Oh, damn, that must have been hard." Fou commented.

"Way to be a prick about it." Lavi growled.

"Considering..." She looked at Allen suggestively.

"Don't you look at me like that." Allen snapped.

"What?" Lenalee asked, looking between the two. She inwardly grinned at her mischievous plan. "We told you a secret, now it's your turn."

"Allen's boyfriend died, like, three years ago, so..."

"Fou!" Allen growled.

"Ohh, I get it. That's why you dislike love." Lenalee said, hitting her fist on her palm in realization. Allen huffed and laid against the window, angry at Fou for giving out something so personal. _Why don't you just tell my whole life story while you're at it. _He thought sarcastically.

"Damn. I made him angry." She stated. She then blinked several times to herself. _Wait, this is good. Allen needs someone to talk to about this. He's rooming with Lavi and Lavi's the perfect person to talk to about this since he's experienced the same thing. _

"Three years ago, though? That's around the same time Daisya died..." She thought aloud to herself. Allen simply drank in the details. Daisya _died? _It almost...didn't seem real. He thought Daisya quit and said hurtful things, which was why they were so bummed out. But, now he could understand why they acted as they did towards him. They probably thought he was trying to replace Daisya.

"Oh yeah, Allen was in a total shit hole after Narain died. Like. Terrible. He was on the verge of-"

"You know I can _hear_ you, right?" Allen growled from the other side of the seat. Fou's grin widened.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. But, it's because of _me_ that he's not there anymore." She said proudly.

"Actually, it's because of-"

"Shut the fuck up and let me take pride in something." Fou grumbled. Allen smiled to himself a little.

"I wonder how that's possible." Lavi teased. "You're so rude and blunt and violent." He pestered.

"What does that make you?" She countered. He went silent and seethed at her. Allen put in headphones, not wanting to listen to them ramble on, and blasted his music. Fou gazed at him before turning to the others. "Still, ever since he died, Allen hasn't been interested in any kind of romance. I mean, at some point he really _did _ask me out, but I turned him down. He was still okay with being friends with me though. After I turned him down, though, he didn't show interest in _anyone." _She informed. "I keep telling him over and over that Narain would probably want him to be happy. He's just clinging on. I've almost got him off it, but only almost. I was kinda hoping that you guys would be the ones to take him off that. I know it sounds stupid, but I think love is just what he needs to make him happy. But he's still so caught up with Narain, it's ridiculous. It's unhealthy."

"Wow. You have a motherly side." Lavi commented.

"I was _also _hoping that Allen could take _you _out of your little asshole state." Fou snapped at the redhead. "I've seen you without it, and I'll tell you this personally: you're a lot better person when you're not an asshole. Seriously, dude. Lighten. Up. Look at Allen. He manages to smile even after Narain's death. Yeah, maybe not around you guys, but that's because he hasn't completely opened up to you."

Despite the fact that Lavi despised her words, he had to admit that she had a point.

* * *

_I suppose I could lighten up...no one's ever pointed it out before..._Lavi thought as they trekked back up to their room. _Holy shit. I was a complete asshole to everyone...I should probably apologize soon..._he sighed as he collapsed onto the bed. He glanced over at Allen, who was taking clothes out of his bag, humming a small melody to himself. Somehow, Lavi's pride wouldn't let him apologize for all he's said. Lavi...wasn't himself. But what did everyone expect? The person he loved _died. _He sighed again and grabbed a pillow, throwing it to his face. Allen glanced up, but shook his head. Getting along with Lavi was going to be difficult. Though it was a bit strange that they had a few things in common. Apparently, from what Lenalee told him, he wasn't one to use sarcasm often before Daisya died. She said that he changed completely, sort of like himself. The two of them sighed together.

They both wondered where they were going to go from here. Lavi insisted to himself that he would try to lighten up, and Allen insisted to himself that he would try to see the good in his new band mates. Maybe, one way or another...they would be able to heal and get along better. But, for now, they would just have to try. _It's been three years of torture...maybe...maybe it would be a relief to everyone else if I picked myself up again. _Lavi thought and smiled into the pillow. Yeah. This would be easy. Easy peasy.

"I'm getting in the shower...did you want to go first?" Allen asked.

"Nah, you go ahead. I'll get in after you." Lavi replied. He needed to think to himself for awhile.

Allen himself needed some me-time.

He got in the shower and immediately relaxed. Yes, he took a shower that very morning, but he's been sweating all day, running around too many restaurants and trying foods that were most likely going to kill him tomorrow. That being said, he'd have to get a good rest tonight. He started humming, completely forgetting that Lavi was in the next room, awake. His humming lead to soft singing and then a bit louder. Lavi paused his shouting in his pillow and removed said cushion from his face. _No way...is he...? _Lavi quickly scrambled off the bed and pressed his ear to the door.

_"The faster we're falling  
__We're stopping and stalling  
We're running in circles again  
Just as things were looking up  
You said it wasn't good enough  
But still we're trying one more time" _

Lavi loved this song. The more unbelievable thing was the fact that _Allen _was _singing_ in the _shower. _Something he did _constantly. _He's had Kanda come into the bathroom several times just to shut him up and kept singing despite that. He pressed his ear to the door and grinned. It was nice to have someone else that also had a small habit like his. He found himself humming along with Allen's singing, a bit impressed that he could stay in time with the beat despite that there was music. Sometimes Lavi fell out of time and he'd curse to himself for it. He sat there, feeling like a creep, listening to him for awhile until he heard the shower shut off. He heard Allen continue humming where he left off and then approach the door. Lavi bolted away from it and belly flopped on the bed, pretending he'd fallen asleep.

"Okay, I'm done with..." Allen trailed off when he saw Lavi's eye closed. "Lavi?" Lavi felt himself stiffen when he felt a slight weight on the bed and Allen's hand on his shoulder. "Hey, don't sleep, you have to take a shower." The younger sighed hopelessly when Lavi didn't stir. Allen paused and got off the bed, walking over to the end of the bed and having a slight difficulty pulling the comforter out from under him. _What is he doing? _Lavi wondered and froze when he felt the comforter that was previously under him being draped over him. He opened his eye ever so cautiously and watched as Allen tucked himself into bed and then put headphones over his ears, pressing play to a piano instrumental of 'A Thousand Years'.

Maybe he was wrong about Allen...

* * *

**Long chapter is long. I'm sorry about all the timeskips/lines in this one. It was so long and I was trying my best to somehow shorten it. Thank you Hanashi o suru for reviewing again. Reviews make me a happy, floofy, kitty. The song Fou started singing when she burst through the door was 'Savior by Rise Against', the one Allen sang in the shower whilst at Fou's house was "Weightless by All Time Low' and the one he sang in the shower at the hotel with Lavi was 'In Too Deep by Sum 41'. I think that's all of them...**


	4. Chapter 4

**WARNING: Slight sexual content and implied/slight self-hurt/cutting.**

* * *

**April 5th**

"Lavi, it's time to wake up!" Allen shook the redhead's shoulder roughly. Who knew he could be such a heavy sleeper? With how forcefully Allen shook him...it was a surprise he hadn't been punched in the face by now. _Maybe I'm just not using enough strength..._Allen thought. He never had to deal with this. Cross was a light sleeper and could hear every tip toe you made across the room. Mana himself was a light sleeper as well as Narain too. Allen was an early riser so he wasn't sure if he was a light sleeper or not since no one ever needed to wake him up. "Lavi! Lenalee's text bombing us! Please get up!" Allen shouted in his ear. That didn't work _at all._ Allen climbed on the bed and started shaking his shoulders as hard as he could, lightly bouncing the bed. He received a 'hurry up' text from Lenalee and quickly texted her back, leaving himself unguarded. He looked at Lavi hopelessly after dropping the phone on the bed. "Wake u-" The younger let out a sudden shout when Lavi yanked him down under the covers with him. _So he wasn't sleeping then?! _Allen thought angrily. He suddenly froze when he realized how close they were.

_He's touching me._

"But baaaabe, I wanna sleep in." He whined. Feeling warm and embarrassed, Allen's face turned red. _Did he just call me...babe? Or maybe...does he think I'm Daisya? Hasn't it been three years since his death...? _Allen swallowed nervously as he felt Lavi pull him closer. This was bad. _Really_ bad. Allen's heart jumped and frenzied around when he felt soft lips press themselves against his neck. He felt like he couldn't move. Like his whole body was dead weight. Lavi's hand slid up his sides and then he drifted them up Allen's shirt. Allen wanted to call out..._needed _to call out. His voice was stuck.

"Lavi..." He whispered. His voice wouldn't go any higher. He felt like the places Lavi touched were starting to burn. He needed to get out of Lavi's grasp. He couldn't _breathe. _Lavi's lips parted slightly and he kissed down to the side of his neck before licking the soft skin and pressing an open-mouthed kiss, sucking. All the breath Allen had in him left him. He felt time stop as pleasure coursed up and down his spine and tingled at his neck. He was going to have a heart attack. It was official. His heart was going to leap out of his chest any minute now. "L-Lavi...please...stop it. We have to...go..." He barely made out.

"Mm, but I don't wanna get up. Not yet." He mumbled against his skin, licking the red bruise on his neck. Lavi's right hand began traveling downwards. Down...and down...and down..._no...don't...oh my god..._Allen thought when he felt Lavi slowly undo his pants and press his hand against his crotch. Allen snapped out of it. Kissing and touching him was _one_ thing but _that_ was off limits to everyone but himself.

"LAVI, GET OFF!" Allen screamed and elbowed him as hard as he could. _That_ woke him up. The redhead shouted and pushed him off the bed.

"Wh-what the hell?!" He exclaimed, rubbing his eye. Allen's face was almost redder than his hair.

"I. Told. You. No. Touch. Ing." Allen hissed.

"But you...but I thought...you...huh?" He rubbed his eye again as Allen rubbed at his neck embarrassingly. Lavi went _way _past the line. "What were you doing in my bed?" He mumbled suspiciously.

"I was trying to wake you up! Then you started-" Allen went silent and his ears went as red as his face and he looked away. Lavi looked away as well, scratching his head. This was bad.

"Shit, man. I'm a cuddle bug, don't do that shit."

"C-cuddle bug?! You were molesting me! I specifically said no touching and you...you went _way, way, way, way, way, _past those boundaries!" His embarrassment was suddenly replaced with anger. His face was no longer red, instead, he just had the most pissed look on his face. One that might be murderous enough to rival Kanda's usual bitchface. At least he finally had a reason to be angry at the boy other than for his assholiness. Lavi's eye glanced over and he looked away again before pursing his lips.

"Well, I mean, at least you enjoyed it..."

Allen went red all over again.

"You...I can't believe you..." He whispered, turning his back to Lavi so he wouldn't see his face or...down below...

"So, anyways, why were you trying to wake me up?" Allen was slightly grateful that the redheaded guitarist changed the subject.

"Check your phone..." Allen mumbled as a reply. Lavi grumbled to himself and grabbed his phone, unlocking it.

"Jesus Christ, twenty two messages? God damn." He muttered and went through them. Allen slyly stood up and made his way to the bathroom, locking the door. He sighed and sat on the toilet, putting his head in his hands. He felt so shaky, either because of Lavi's actions, or because he was starving...or because...Allen slightly looked down and sighed. He should probably put on a pair of less tight pants to make it less noticeable. _It'll eventually go away on it's own...hopefully..._he thought begrudgingly. This was definitely something he was _not_ telling Fou about.

Lavi meanwhile, texted Lenalee back and apologized before looking at their schedule. _A puppet show? Really? I know that we're visiting a lot of places, but I highly doubt any of our kind of fans would be at a puppet show. _That being said, he texted said thoughts to Lenalee before finding something else in his bed. _Is this...Allen's phone? _He wondered, picking it up and observing it. _Some type of...Blackberry? _He guessed and unlocked it (which was easy because Allen didn't have a password). His background was a picture of all his friends that played with him that night at the auditions. They were all standing on a huge pile of snow that had to be more than seven feet high. The brunet one with spiky hair was reaching down, holding a black-haired one's hand (whom was falling), Fou was on her back, laughing. A girl in braided pigtails was holding onto Allen with a huge blush on her face whilst said boy was giving the other two a worried look. _Who took the picture then?_ Lavi wondered and sorted through Allen's pictures. He found a picture before it with a blonde man looking into the camera oddly like he had no idea how the contraption worked. He then switched it over to another picture where Allen seemed to be giggling at the blonde man, whose face was red. Humming, Lavi browsed through his pictures.

_How long has he had this phone? There's, like, a bazillion pictures in here. _He wondered, pausing when he noticed that Allen's mood was slightly changing as he went back in time through the years. He looked at the date to see a photo from three years ago. The picture was really photogenic, so that had to be the only reason it was taken. Allen was leaned over in a hospital bed with bandages around his chest and left arm. Fou was sitting beside him, her hand was on his shoulder. Lavi couldn't read his expression but, whatever it was, it wasn't good. He hummed to himself and skipped to a picture before that. He gave the phone an incredulous look. There was a boy with dark blue eyes and short, brown, spiky hair behind Allen. Allen had..._really_ long hair. And when Lavi said _really_ he _meant_ really. His hair had to be down to midback. The boy behind Allen was braiding it or playing with it or something. It was a video. Lavi glanced around, wondering if he should play it. He grabbed his earphones and stuck the plug in, only plugging one in his ear just in case Allen came back from the bathroom. He'd like to say he wasn't snooping but...

He was so snooping.

It was silent at first and, Lavi was right. The boy behind him _was_ playing with his hair.

_"Your hair's so soft." He commented._

_"I want to cut it." Allen replied, turning the page in his book. The brunet boy frowned._

_"Why?"_

_"It's difficult."_

_"How so?" _

_"Well, for one, it's difficult to brush all the knots out of it in the morning and for two, people keep pulling on it. I can't tell you how many snarly remarks I get at school each day."_

_"I like it." The boy mumbled and kissed his head. Allen smacked at him. _

_"Don't do that."_

_"Why not?" _

_"Because...just don't...I think Lala might be around here somewhere..." He mumbled. There was giggling in the background of the recording and Lavi had to guess it was Lala who had snatched his phone and was currently recording them, hiding. _

_"So what?" The boy asked, his face a bit sour. "She already knows." _

_"Yeah, but I mean, she probably doesn't want to see it." Allen replied, flipping another page. The boy stuck out his lower lip and rested his chin on Allen's head. _

_"Is that book more interesting than me?"_

_"Yeah, you should read it, it's great." Allen replied with a grin. _

_"You sassy little shit." He laughed. _

_"Vulgar language, Narain, do you need soap in your mouth?"_

_"What are you, my mom?"_

_"I could be."_

_"No thanks, I'm not up for incest." Allen had a crude scowl on his face._

_"That is so disgusting, why did you say that?" Narain laughed. _

Lavi paused. Narain...wasn't that...Allen's ex-boyfriend? He continued the video.

_"Anyways...how's your sister holding up?" Allen asked, his concentration not so much on the book anymore. Narain seemed more downhearted by Allen's question._

_"Not so well..." He replied honestly. Allen sighed and closed his book. _

_"Narain...if something bad happens..."_

_"Allen, please don't."_

_"Narain, I'm serious. If something bad does happen...promise me you'll pull through it." He set his book down and turned around, capturing Narain's hands. Narain didn't seem so enthused anymore with the topic change. _

_"Allen...she's all I have left."_

_"But you...you have me, don't you?"_

_"You're not family."_

_"Maybe not, but Mana was all I had left." _

_"No, Allen, you had Cross and Neah-"_

_"Neah doesn't do shit for me." Allen growled. "He doesn't care; not to mention Cross is an asshole who is barely capable of feelings. I pulled through by myself...mostly because of you...so only _if_ something happens. Promise me you'll pull through too." _

_"Allen...I'm not as strong as you are."_

_"And if you leave me behind too...what about me? What do you think...do you think that I just have a crush or something. Narain, I-"_

_"I know, Allen, I know. But this just means, if something ever happens to me..." The brunet trailed off and took Allen's hands into his own, turning the tables. "Would you be able to pull through?"_

_"I..." Allen trailed off and sat down on the bed. "I don't want to lose anyone else important to me...that's why I want you to promise...just...don't do anything stupid, okay?"_

_"I won't. I promise." Narain replied. He let his hands dig through Allen's hair before pulling him close and sharing a kiss." Lavi could hear a slight squeal in the background. The two instantly pulled away and looked towards the closet. Allen's expression turned angry and he stormed towards the camera. A door opened, leading Lavi to believe that Lala was hiding in the closet. Allen glared at the phone and grabbed it. _

_"How did you get my phone?" He snapped. She sighed, disappointed that she was caught. "You were taking a video?! Lala! How long have you been there?! That's it, I'm deleting it!"_

_"No!" Narain snapped. "Don't!" He whined and glomped Allen, sending the phone across the room. Lala grabbed the phone and started reording the two arguing boys. "Pleaseee? Don't delete it, please?" He asked, giving Allen puppy dog eyes. The boy sighed. _

_"Fine. Turn it off!" He snapped towards the camera and the video stopped._

Just then the door flung open and Lavi backed out of the gallery, throwing Allen's phone across the room. Luckily it landed on his bed. The white haired teen didn't even looking his way. He just went to the counter and started making coffee.

"So, what? Were you dealing with your little problem?" Lavi teased. Allen blushed and glared at him.

"Screw off. It's your fault."

"Oh? Do I turn you on that much?" He asked and Allen's face heated even more.

"You..." Allen glared at him and looked away. "What's got you so chipperish anyways?" He muttered, rubbing his eyes as he made the coffee.

"Weed." Lavi grinned. Allen's head snapped over him. The redhead laughed. "Just kidding." He paused. "Have you ever been high before?"

"No."

"It's great."

_Why are you even talking to me? _Allen wondered, pouring himself a hot cup of coffee. He put some sugar in it and then added some cream. "But, actually, I managed to talk Lenalee out of going to the puppet show." He informed victoriously.

"Right." Allen mumbled.

"So, about you and this Narain guy." Allen instantly froze. He slowly looked over at Lavi with an unreadable expression. "How do you know about him?" He mumbled.

"I don't. I know his name and that's it. And that he was your ex-boyfriend. He died three years ago, right? When?" Allen looked away from him.

"Why do you care." He murmured, sipping his coffee.

"Because..." Lavi sighed and scratched his head. "Lenalee told me to talk to you about it...since Daisya also..." Lavi's voice died in his throat. He couldn't even remember the last time he said his ex-lover's name.

"He...died a few months after Christmas..." Allen mumbled, sipping his coffee. He didn't dare look Lavi in the eye.

"This is just too coincidental...that's when he also died..."

"...how did he...?" Lavi scratched his head and hummed.

"Car accident."

_No way...it couldn't be..._

"What...?"

"Ah, well, he was driving and the car in front of us suddenly just went crazy and swerved all over the place and we crashed into it...there were so many casualties, it was all over the news."

"Where...where were you..." Allen mumbled. The dread in his heart was beginning to twist and jerk around.

"Uh...actually, we were in this state. We've been in this state since he..." Lavi trailed off and looked over at Allen's mortified expression. "...what's that look for?" He asked. Allen put his cup down and held a hand to his mouth.

"You were there."

"Huh? We were where?"

"You were...I can't believe it...Lavi...what car were you guys driving?"

"Just some rusty ass jeep."

_"The jeep behind the car that hit your friend crashed into the car fell apart and pieces went flying. Most of them were flying into you." _Allen's doctor had told him later that day.

"Oh my god." Allen mumbled and fell to the floor. He suddenly felt sick...nauseous...like he was going to pass out. Lavi instantly got off the bed and hurried over.

"What's wrong?!" He asked and knelt down.

"Narain...was hit by a car...the same car...that you guys drove behind..." He whispered. Lavi's eye widened.

"So then...wait..." It was Lavi's turn to remember what the doctor said to him. "_When your jeep exploded into sorts, the debris went flying and nearly killed a bystander." _Was that bystander...Allen? If he was nearly killed...did that mean he had scars? Was that why he wouldn't let anyone see what was underneath his clothes. Lavi somewhat wished he was completely conscious when he touched Allen. Then he'd be able to know if he felt any scars. "This is...this is deep...Allen, I...I don't know what to say..."

"Neither do I...I can't believe it..." He suddenly froze and looked up at Lavi. "It's my fault...Lavi...I'm so sorry..."

"What...what's your fault?" For some reason, Lavi felt anger beginning to boil up inside of him...but why? What did Allen do?

"It's my fault...it's my fault they're dead..." He mumbled, putting his face in his hands. Lavi grabbed them and slammed him onto the floor.

"What the hell do you _mean_ it's your fault?! Explain yourself?!"

"I...Narain's...sister...she died...we were crossing the street...he always looked both ways so I never worried about it...but he was so depressed...I didn't...I didn't think it would affect it...but he didn't...he didn't look...and that's when..."

"That car in front of us swerved to try not to hit him..."

"He was still hit..." Allen murmured. "It's only because...I wasn't looking...if I looked..." Allen felt tears threatening to spill over. No. He wouldn't cry. He needed to stay strong...but how could he? Not only did he kill his boyfriend...but Lavi's as well...Lavi slowly stood up and walked off. "Lavi...I...I'm sorry..."

"Shut up. I don't want to talk to you." Lavi's voice...he was so angry...Allen could tell from the bitterness in his voice. Would he tell the others? Would they kick him out? It was his fault their lead singer died...did he even deserve to be in the band? Allen crawled over to his phone and texted Fou: _Come here._ Not even five minutes later, Allen managed to tie on his boots and zip up his jacket, leaving the hotel and waiting outside the door for Fou. She jogged over and Allen walked off. She instantly sensed something was wrong and followed him. She had a bad feeling about all this...they walked for what seemed like an hour until they stopped at a local park. It was empty and abandoned. Allen turned around and buried his face into her shoulder, hugging her tightly.

"Allen?" She asked weakly.

It had been a long time since Allen had cried.

"It's all my fault..." He mumbled.

"What happened?" She asked, her soft side coming out. Soon enough they found each other sitting in the grass with Allen's face hiding against Fou's shoulder. She could feel the cloth on her shoulder grown damp from Allen's tears.

"The others...they...they were in the car...behind the car...that hit him..." Fou froze at Allen's words.

"What?" Allen hiccuped and sniffled. He hated crying. Yes, crying showed that you were human, but it also showed a sign of weakness.

"They were there...the jeep that crashed behind the car that crashed into the one that hit Narain...they were in it...it's all my fault...I only hoped...that Narain was the only one...but I-"

"Allen, it wasn't your fault."

"Yes it was!" Allen's fingers tightened around her shirt. "If I...if I looked...that wouldn't have happened..."

"Allen, this isn't your fault. You were used to Narain looking both ways. You didn't know. It's alright. Things like this happen all the time. It's _not _your fault."

How could she just say that so easily?

"If you think about it, they could have pulled the emergency brake instead of hitting that car. It's their fault. They got themselves into that mess. They were the ones who hurt _you." _She did have a point there...but if Allen actually pulled Narain away altogether...he would still be alive right now.

So much for living without any regrets.

* * *

"So you're telling me..." Lenalee trailed off. "Allen was there when Daisya died?" Lavi nearly smacked himself in the face.

"That's not just _it_, Lenalee, he was damn near the cause of it. He was the one that made the car in front of us go nuts." Lavi muttered.

"But, you know, Lavi, Daisya was still just learning, you can't blame everything on Allen." She insisted. "There wasn't any vehicles behind us at that time. He could have slammed on the brakes."

"Are you trying to blame this on Daisya?" Lavi asked incredulously.

"I'm not _trying _to, Lavi, but you can't just blame his death on someone who's suffering just as much as us." She replied.

Allen had to be hurting, learning about this. He seemed to like them, despite that they weren't as nice to him to begin with. But, really, even though it had been three years, everything had changed. The way they did things...their personalities...they never got over Daisya's death. Lenalee thought that now was maybe the time they could get over him. Yes, he always had a special place in their hearts, but he would want them to move on, she knew he would. Despite his playful attitude, he did have a sensitive heart. That had to've been thanks to Tiedoll. Ever since his death, though, Kanda hadn't visited his foster father. It was a surprise they even talked. She thought maybe introducing the group to someone new might change all that...was she wrong? Allen seemed polite, nice, caring...all that...so then why wasn't her plan working? He even said so himself that he wasn't trying to measure up to Daisya.

"Fou's right." Miranda mumbled. Honestly, she didn't want to intrude on the conversation, but Lavi was being ridiculous. "Lavi, you need to lighten up."

"Lighten up? How do you propose I _do_ that? The person I loved is _dead." _

"He's been dead for three years, Lavi." Lenalee whispered. "We're suffering just as much as you. We all loved Daisya. Can you...at least try to put yourself in our shoes before going off?" Lavi sighed at her words and collapsed on the bed Kanda slept in.

"...wait...where's Allen?" Miranda asked slowly.

"Uh, I dunno, he left or something. He'll probably be back in a little...where's Fou?" He suddenly asked, looking around.

"Fou said that..." Lenalee trailed off.

"Allen texted her..." Miranda finished.

"God damn it, are you fucking serious?" Kanda growled. Lenalee was a bit surprised that he just now hopped in on the conversation. Daisya was probably the most close to him, seeing as how they were brothers. Not blood brothers, but close enough. Lenalee's phone rang and she looked down at it with a frown.

"Seems like they're _not_ returning." She replied, showing them the message.

_Allen and I are going home. _

"Well, that screws up our plans." Miranda commented. Lenalee sighed and collapsed on the other bed that Fou slept in.

"We had an entire schedule ahead of us."

* * *

**April 6th**

Allen paced around the room nervously. Fou was casually laying on the couch, attempting to watch TV. It didn't help that Allen kept pacing in _front_ of it. "Miranda cancelled practice. What are you so worried about? You don't have to show your face..." She paused for effect. "Yet."

"I should get a job." Allen suddenly said. Fou didn't expect _that. _

"Uh, why?" She asked lamely. What were they doing up at seven in the morning, anyways?

"Because, I can't ask for money from them...if I'm still in that is. And working could probably get me a lot more money than gambling...I need to get out of that..."

"Cabin?" Fou laughed.

"Yeah." He replied shortly.

"Well, okay, let's go. I hear there's a place downtown that's hiring. You'd have to walk, though." Fou said, pausing. "It's not really that far."

"Well, that's good." Allen commented and walked over to the front door, sitting on the floor to tie up his boots. "You'll take me there, right?" He questioned. She nodded and trotted over, following his actions. Allen zipped up his trademark gray hoodie and she did the same with her tan and purple one, following him out the door.

They walked and talked about a few things, including how bitter Lavi had acted towards him once he spoke about the accident. Still...for that to happen...it had to've been a small world. The walk only lasted about ten minutes, and they walked in. Allen stood by the door and rocked on the back of his feet anxiously as Fou said she'd talk to the manager. Apparently her and the manager had an argument before and honestly hated each other, but they seemed to have respect for each other in a way. The manager was a man with dark, tanned skin, long black hair, and a monocle over his right eye. His eyes were a familiar golden color and he looked so...professional...Allen felt his gut sink. The only nice thing he had to wear was a white button up shirt, a black vest, and a fancy, red ribbon. With dress pants, but he didn't have any formal shoes or anything...maybe this place was a bit too ritzy for him...but, then again, that only proved the employees made good pay. Allen twiddled his thumbs nervously and resisted the urge to text her that they should just look somewhere else when she began arguing. It was then that he was approached by a man (quite attractive, Allen had to admit) with a name-tag that read 'Tyki.' It was quite a unique name. Allen had only ever heard of the name once. Where though? For some reason he couldn't remember.

"Is there something you need, boy?" He asked, shifting the tray from one hand to another. "We don't allow people to stay here free of charge." _F-fancy..._Allen thought.

"Oh...no...actually...I'm...waiting on my friend..." He mumbled, gesturing to the arguing pair.

"Oh. You're the one trying to get a job here? We're a family-run restaurant."

_Then why would you be hiring? _Allen wanted to ask, but this Tyki guy seemed real bitter about the whole thing already, "Oh...well...I guess I'll just...wait for her to be declined then..." He mumbled, shuffling his feet. Him? A job? He should have known better than to actually even try. He sighed and ran a gloved hand through his hair, looking around. Everyone was staring at Fou and the manager 'Sheryl.' If he were to go confront her...everyone would look at him. He simply shuddered at the thought. Allen pulled out his phone and quickly texted her.

_One of the employee's here said that this was a family-run restaurant. Maybe you heard wrong..._he sent.

Fou paused in her shouting, looking down at the message and glaring at her phone. She huffed and snapped a small "who wants to work in this shitty place anyways?" at Sheryl and stormed off, grabbing Allen's wrist. His left one...she was the only one who was ever allowed to touch it. Even the other three weren't allowed to touch it...yet...Allen would let them someday...when he was comfortable with them enough. "Come on, Allen." She snapped, dragging him off. Tyki grabbed his other wrist before he could leave his sight.

"What did you just say?" He murmured. Fou glared at him.

"Fuck off, pedo." She snapped.

"Do you...do you know Neah?" Allen's eyes suddenly widened in horror at Tyki's words. Now he knew it. The tanned skin. The golden eyes. The dark hair. They were all traits that Neah carried.

"Oh shit." Fou whispered. Allen backed away, yanking his wrist away and feeling it with his left hand. These people. These were Neah's relatives. He had to get out. He needed to get out. Allen shook his head and ran out the door. She stared at Tyki for a long time before attacking him, grabbing the front of his shirt. "How the fuck do you know that shithead?" She whispered harshly.

"Shit...head...?" He mumbled.

"How. Do. You. Know?" She asked bitterly.

"He's...my brother..." Tyki mumbled incredulously. Fou's eyes widened. She instantly glowered and threw him to the floor.

"Wow. Found the nest of shitheads. Lucky me. Just had to drag Allen here, didn't I?" She asked herself and stormed off. Sheryl hurried over to Tyki's side.

"What's up with her?"

"That...was Allen...Neah's nephew...the boy..." He mumbled with disbelief.

"What? But he..."

"Mana's son." Tyki mumbled.

"What...no way..." Sheryl mumbled. "Do you think...should we tell Neah?"

"No." Tyki immediately replied. "He obviously is scared of Neah finding out about him being here. We need to gain his trust."

"But-" Sheryl always forgot how capable Tyki was as an assistant manager.

"We have to hire him. Sheryl...do you have Fou's number?"

* * *

"Allen! Allen! Wait up! God damn it, stop or I'll cut your fucking legs off!" She shouted. Allen stopped and she rammed into him, nearly knocking them down. "Jesus fucking _wait." _She muttered. "Look, Allen...I didn't mean to...I don't...I didn't know what Neah looked like, if I knew he looked like them I would never have taken you here, it was an accident I swear. Are you alright?" _Man, this year has been shit for him. _She thought dryly. Allen nodded.

"Sorry, I just...I had to get away from there..." He mumbled. "Fou...can we go back? To your place? I need to take a shower..." He grumbled, wiping the sweat from his brow.

Fou nodded and they both started walking back to her house. It took a bit since they ran ten minutes farther so it was a fifteen minute walk back (shortcuts are amazing). Allen hummed a small tune on the way back and searched through Fou's drawers for any of his clothes (she insisted that they looked better on her so she wore his clothes a lot. He supposed he could understand why people would think they were dating) and found a pair of ripped, white, skinny jeans and a bright red shirt with a white Legend of Zelda crest on the front. He also found a pair of his boxers in her underwear drawer (she insisted that it was okay for him to look through it since she obviously had his boxers and he was 'gay,' not to mention that she didn't even wear women's underwear, she wore boxers as well. Yeah, they had an odd friendship) before running towards the bathroom and stripping without hesitation. The hot water on his back felt _so_ relaxing. He sighed and just stood there for five minutes before feeling a tune pop in his head.

_"Everybody's waiting_  
_Everybody's watching_  
_Even when you're sleeping_  
_Keep your ey-eyes open"_

He sang lightly. Fou, who was making cheesecake downstairs (she felt like she owed him for bringing him to Neah's family's restaurant), started humming along. Despite that she hated Taylor Swift, she really liked her songs. No one said you had to like the singer to like their music. Like Justin Beaver or whatever. She hated the fuck out of that guy, but his Never Say Never song was actually pretty alright. She wasn't even that into pop. She _did_ think that Allen sang it better though. Then again, it almost seemed like Allen sang everything better...she paused in her mixing when she heard her doorbell ring. _I swear to god if it's those stupid band members..._her thoughts slowly faded away to nothing when she saw Tyki standing there. "What the _fuck_ do _you_ want?" Fou snarled. She cursed when Tyki recognized the soft singing from the bathroom.

_"The tricky thing _  
_Is yesterday we were just children_  
_Playing soldiers just pretending_  
_Dreaming dreams with happy endings"_

"Is that-"

"Just shut the fuck up and tell me why you're here."

"We want to hire Allen." He said bluntly.

"No." She replied just as so and went to shut the door. He stuck his foot in the door before she could close it and invited himself in."

"Hey, asshole, get out." She growled. Tyki held his hand up to silence her (it didn't really work out very well). "Don't you try to shush me-"

"Neah doesn't work with us." He informed. "In fact, we haven't seen him around for an entire five months." He informed. "So, the chances of him and Neah meeting are very, _very_ slim. We _are_ hiring and Allen is the perfect candidate. He _is_ our family. We really didn't want to hire anyone outside the family, but Neah was our top worker and suddenly quit on us." He turned to Fou. "So, are you ready to chat?" The room was silent except for Allen's light singing from the shower.

_"In backyards, winning battles with our wooden swords_  
_But now we've stepped into a cruel world_  
_Where everybody stands and keeps score_  
_Keep your eyes open"_

The silence didn't drag on very long as Allen began singing the chorus. "Fine. I'll give you ten minutes." She replied, gesturing for him to sit on the couch. "But I'm not making you any fucking tea or anything."

"I didn't want any."

"Fuck you."

"Anyways," Tyki muttered and started to insist why Allen should work there. It wasn't even a minute when he convinced her. He felt like he was applying for the first time, telling Sheryl why he should be hired. That was so long ago...still, he said that even if Allen was adopted, he was still family, and could see a small spark in Fou's magenta eyes. It was the smallest spark, but Tyki barely caught it.

"I'll talk to him about it. But don't think he's going to say yes." She replied. "He and Neah aren't on good terms. Neah never did shit for him after Mana's death so he doesn't have any respect for him whatsoever. You being Neah's family, well, he might just expect you to be the same. Just warning you. Anyways, you'll have to wait for him to get out of the shower, Now, if you don't mind, I have a cake to make." She huffed and stormed off.

She regretted leaving Tyki alone.

The man grinned at the chance and wandered off without her even realizing it. He had skill when it came to being quiet. It was like he could walk through walls to other people. He was silent, and quite possibly deadly. He approached the bathroom door and slowly turned the knob, expecting it to be locked (he could pick it if it was). It wasn't. Yes, this was probably very bad to do, but he had to talk to Allen face to face and be back before his half an hour break ended. He opened the door and approached the shower, gazing at Allen's left arm intently as well as the large scar on the right side of his chest. Maybe he shouldn't have continued to stare at him and let his eyes be tempted further, but nonetheless, he lunged as Allen sang mid-lyric.

_"Keep your feet ready_  
_Heartbeat steady_  
_Keep your eyes open_  
_Keep your aim locked_  
_The night goes dark_  
_Keep your eyes-"_

Allen let out a loud scream and Fou instantly dropped her bowl, her head snapping back to the couch, only to find it empty. "WHAT THE HELL?!" Allen screamed. "YOU FUCKING PERV GET OUT!" She couldn't help herself. Allen only ever cussed when he sang or if he was _really _freaked.

"Calm down." Tyki hissed, laying his hand on Allen's left shoulder. Said teen froze.

"Stop...stop touching me." He mumbled, looking away. Luckily the shower rod fell (okay, so actually, that wasn't very lucky since Fou's short self would have to put it back up) so that the shower curtain was covering up his privates. "Stop...touching...you're touching me, please stop-" Allen froze when Tyki suddenly kissed him. Yet, somehow, he felt himself relax. Tyki was half-expecting Allen to kick him in the crotch. But, he calmed down just a bit. He found himself kissing him even deeper, but this was normal among the family, so it didn't seem out of place to him. Fou's laughter had died down and she eventually went up there, staring at the situation with a very odd expression. Was there incest going on in the family or what? Shrugging, she figured Tyki had it all in the bag and left downstairs. The kiss progressed to very high levels and Allen couldn't even scream when Tyki released him. _He's...really good..._was all Allen could think.

"Now, can I talk to you calmly?" Tyki asked. Allen didn't know what else to do but nod. "Neah isn't with us. We need help around the place. You can offer whatever hours you like. Will you accept our invitation?" Allen nodded dumbly and Tyki grinned. He was good at persuading people...poor Allen. "Well, I suppose you'll want to get dressed then and speak more about this, hm?" Allen couldn't be anymore hot than he already was and simply nodded again. Tyki was a little upset that his outfit was ruined, but maybe Sheryl wouldn't mind if he called off. It was Monday and everyone was too busy working that day...

Hopefully they could give Allen a flexible schedule.

* * *

"I'm busy from ten in morning to five in the evening everyday of the week. Other than that, I'm free." Allen informed with a small. Tyki hummed to himself and nodded.

"I believe we can squeeze you in somewhere."

"So, what? No application? No drug test?" Fou asked incredulously.

"We don't judge family." Tyki replied and stood up. "My break has been over for an hour and a half now, so I suppose I'll go now. By the way, we don't fire. So if you want to leave, you'll have to quit. Tomorrow your practice will start at seven until three, which is when we close. I'll see you then, _boy." _He smiled and left through the front door.

"I've never had a job or anything...but this has got to be weird."

"Me either...I don't really know, but I thought they were more professional with things."

"Wow. You're allowed to do drugs and they don't give a shit." She barked a small laugh. Allen suddenly gasped and slapped his forehead.

"I don't know what to wear!" He said dramatically. Fou rolled her eyes.

"You sound like a girl."

"Fou, I'm serious! They looked so fancy...I don't have anything fancy..." He whispered worriedly.

"Chill, little dude, I'll just text Sheryl and ask." Fou laughed and texted said man. "Anyways, you should get to bed. I know you haven't had any sleep since we left the hotel yesterday."

"Wh...how did you..." Allen trailed off, looking away.

"Allen, I've known you for two, almost three, years. I know when you're out of it." She mumbled, grabbing his right wrist, letting her thumb lightly graze at the skin, feeling the slightly rough texture. She saw the way he lightly flinched when Tyki grabbed him back at the Ark. No one else saw it because he was really good at hiding it. Fou was honestly surprised Tyki didn't say anything about it. He saw Allen naked...but what if he didn't see them? The cuts on his wrist. Fou didn't even have to look. She knew they were there. They were always there when she first met him. She thought he had finally come out of the bad habit...but it seemed like it was back...once again.

Fou hated being this way.

She didn't like being soft. It showed everyone how vulnerable she was so she tried to keep it only in front of Allen. Even the others barely ever saw her like this. But it seemed that Allen was really messed up that he even needed her comfort. Maybe they could all hang out this week...hopefully. Maybe it would boost his mood. Hopefully it would. He sighed and laid his hand over hers. _How did she know? Why? Why does she always know? How can she read me so easily? _Allen wondered. Even Lala could never tell when he was like this. Lately, his mood has been shit. He missed the times where he could always reply with a sarcastic or sassy remark. Now, it seemed like he couldn't do it.

He couldn't wait for this month to be over.

* * *

**April 7th**

Allen, once again, was pacing nervously. Fou was growing tired of it and wished he would at least go pace elsewhere. "Did you get any texts from Lenalee? What if I show up and they-"

"No." Fou answered before he could assume more terrible situations like he had been doing since six o'clock in the morning. She was tired as shit. Allen woke up at five and decided to wake her up at fucking six and then he started worrying about practice. It was now eight. _I doubt any of the fuckers are even away, like, god damn Allen and his early birdness. _She thought angrily as she violently rubbed at her eyes. "Allen, they're probably not even awake. It's still two hours until practice _starts." _

"But still..."

"No. Shut up. I'm fucking tired." She snapped.

'But-"

"No more fucking buts unless it's your behind. Shut the fuck up, sit the fuck down, set a fucking alarm, and go the fuck back to sleep." She growled.

Fou was _not_ a morning person.

"Fou..." He mumbled. "I don't even know if I can face them. This is bad."

"Just stop freaking out! If they don't like you, they don't like you! If they kick you out, they kick you out! You're not getting shit from being in their band anyways so chill the fuck out! There's a bazillion other bands out there you could join so just chill. You said you were fine with just listening to their music, weren't you?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Then, o-fucking-kay. Enough. Said."

He sighed and flopped on the couch. Fou ended up dozing off and he found himself staring at the clock for the longest time. It felt like years before it was nine-thirty. His wrist was burning. He wanted to cut...he almost felt like he needed it. But he wouldn't. Not in Fou's house. The only time he ever cut was either in a public restroom (in a stall, by himself) or at his own home. Anywhere else and he felt like his personal space was being violated. Even at Fou's, where he felt like he belonged most. Allen had so many things to worry about. The practice. The training. He itched at his wrist nervously. At nine forty-five, Fou finally woke up and glanced at Allen, her eyes widening. He was staring at the clock distantly and scratching (_more like clawing, like, fucking hell_, Fou thought) at his wrist, which was bleeding. He probably didn't even notice it. No. He _didn't_ notice it.

"Allen!' She shouted angrily and whacked his hand.

"Ow, what was that...oh god..." Allen quickly stood up and nearly ran to the bathroom, grabbing a rag. "I...sorry, Fou, I didn't even notice..." He cursed, holding the wet rag to his wrist tightly. He hated this habit. It was a horrible habit. And for Fou to catch him in such an act...it made him feel even worse. She didn't need to see it. He already knew where the medical kit was (he scraped his knee and bruised himself a lot) and quickly wrapped his wrist in bandaid tape. Fou rubbed circles on her temple, sighing. She hated it when Allen did this to himself.

Little did she know, Allen hated it just as much.

Ten minutes later found them standing in front of Lavi's residence. There was a small note taped to it and Fou snatched it. "Don't come in, old panda?" She read aloud. "What the hell...who is old panda?" She asked, sticking the note back on the door and pulling out her phone to text Lenalee: _what's going on? _She got a reply almost instantly. Lenalee informed that Allen_ was _still in and that they should hurry to practice. Fou threw the door open and sweat dropped to see them all lounging on the couch in their pajamas.

"Pajama Friday came early." She informed with a lazy smile.

"Well, it's Pajama day for you guys then. Allen's got a little something coming up at like..."

"Seven..." Allen mumbled.

"Seven." She relayed onto them.

"What is it? A date?" Lenalee asked curiously.

"Ah, no, he isn't that lucky." She winked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Allen muttered.

"Your uncle is hot as fuck." She whispered back and he rolled his eyes, but she continued, "and most likely into incest."

"Fou, please..." Allen begged.

"Yeah, yeah. So he looks just a bit fancy. But, no, not a date. He's just...visiting someone." She lied, not knowing if he was allowed to have a job whilst in the bad.

"Oh." Lenalee mumbled, not as interested as before. _Well, fuck you too. _Fou thought and dragged Allen in, seeing as he wouldn't go in by himself.

"So? Why are you all laying around like a bunch of couch potatoes?" She questioned.

"We decided to take a bit of a break until one. Maybe watch some movies."

"Slackers." Fou commented and casually flopped down next to Lavi, letting her arm rest behind his head. She dragged Allen on the other side of her. Lavi gave her the strangest look.

"Dude. Personal space." He commented and scooted over.

"What? I'm not allowed to sit next to a hot guy and enjoy it? Lame. I thought I scared you into it by now." She replied casually. Lavi's eyebrow shot up pretty high.

"Did you just call me-"

"Hot? Yeah? I can admit it. Kanda's pretty hot too. But more in a dark way. Allen's cute, Lenalee and Miranda's alright. I'm not into girls, so I can't tell if they're sexy or not."

"Uh..." Lenalee trailed off, unsure of how to put Fou's sudden compliments. Was she trying to compensate for something?

"Besides, you're gay anyways, so what does it matter?" She said, pausing. Lavi was about to reply, but she quickly came up with another question to ask them. "Wait, are you all gay?" She asked.

"Kanda and I are bi, Miranda's asexual, and Lavi's gay."

"I'm not-"

"Oh, okay, so I'm allowed to ship Allen with any of you. Except you, Miranda, you're just a little bit too old for him." She grinned widely at the sight of the older woman's blush. Allen didn't even bother commenting. This happened frequently. _Too frequently. _He thought bitterly.

Surprisingly enough, his day went well.

Practice went smoothly (aside from the tense air as he and Lavi tip toed around each other to avoid conversation), training went great (who knew waiting tables could be so easy?), and he actually felt tired for once in his life. He actually went home, deciding to sleep on his loud, uncomfortable, springy, bed. He was surrounded by posters of bands, including those of Innocence. He started wondering if maybe he should take them down until he realized that Daisya was in all of them. They were all signed by all five of them. Out of respect for the deceased brunet, Allen decided to keep them up. Maybe someday, he could find a special place in their hearts just as Daisya did. He'd never be as special as the boy, but he felt that maybe...just maybe...he might be ale to mean something to them.

* * *

**The song used in this chapter was 'Eyes Open by Taylor Swift.' These chapters are getting quite long, aren't they? Friendship development for Lavi and Allen kinda went back to the negatives, huh? Thank you Hanashi o suru for reviewing. I hope you'll continue to stay with the story. Your reviews are great and I'm only on the fourth chapter! :) **


	5. Chapter 5

**Warning: Implied sexual content**

* * *

**April 10th**

"Allen, I think we need to get you onstage." Miranda said, clapping her hands together excitingly.

Both Allen and Fou spat out their drinks. Fou gave Miranda the strangest look and Allen began to sweat nervously. "Well how do you propose you'll do that, Ms. Manager?" Fou asked darkly. "You guys haven't even tried boosting his confidence. He walks up on that stage and he'll pass out instantly. Trust me, it's on tape." Allen blushed deeply as everyone looked his way. He opened his mouth, but instantly closed it before looking away.

"I hate you."

"What? It's not my fault! Blame Rikei. It was kinda funny seeing you puke on that one guy though." Fou giggled. "If he didn't have the hots for you, he probably would have knocked you out instead of helping you." She cackled.

"Fou, you are truly a horrible person." Allen mumbled, laying his forehead on the table so he couldn't see everyone's piercing stares.

"The point _is..._" Fou continued. "Allen can't perform onstage. Not until his little problem is fixed."

"Okay, well then we need to find the source." Lavi cut in. Allen and Fou were both surprised by his input. Lavi wanting to help Allen? The last time they checked, Lavi hated Allen in a way. He blamed him for his lover's death, after all.

"The source?" Fou questioned.

"Yeah. The reason why he's so scared. What is it? Why do you feel scared when you go onstage?" Lavi asked and Allen lightly raised his head.

"That's..." Allen mumbled and looked away, not liking the way they all looked at him expectantly. "...I don't like people staring at me."

"Why not?" Lavi questioned.

"Because I just don't." Allen countered. If he gave the reason, they'd think he was stupid. It was stupid, the reason. Whenever someone stared at them, he felt like they could see through him. See how much suffering, see his scars, see how deformed he was. He hated it. Even now, as Lavi was giving him that suspicious stare, it felt like his stare was burning through him.

"Psst, dude. You're making him uncomfortable." Fou muttered, elbowing the redhead.

"Well, there's _got_ to be a reason. There's no 'just because' about it. If we don't find why he feels that way, we won't be able to help."

"I don't think you'll be able to help either way. The way I feel can't change." Allen mumbled, keeping his stare to the wall.

"We have to or there's no Innocence." Kanda snapped. Allen swallowed nervously. What was he going to do? He couldn't tell them...it was too embarrassing. His pride simply wouldn't let him. _I want to say it's not their business...but it is. It was my fault for accepting Miranda's request. Either I quit now or I keep moving forward. It's one or the other. _

"It's because..." Allen sighed and shifted his position a few times. Fou had never seen him so uncomfortable. "I feel...like...they can just...see everything...and you can't change that. It's impossible to change what's happened in the past."

"See everything?" Lavi asked, leaning back. "Like what? We've all got our scars, Allen."

"Just..." Fou stared at Allen, but it wasn't her stare that was worrying him. He was always fine with Fou staring at him...just not strangers. She knew how he felt, but not everyone could be as understanding as her.

"Show us." Lavi offered. Allen froze.

"What?"

"Show us what you think they see." Allen and Fou's eyes widened.

"I think that's enough." Fou growled. "Now you're just being flat out rude. He doesn't like _strangers_ staring at him. If it were me, or any of the others, that'd be okay. Maybe you don't realize it, but you're strangers too."

_Ouch. _Lenalee thought.

"Well what about in the future, hm? We're not going to be strangers then and there won't be a future if you never give us your secrets."

"Give him yours first. How's he to know that you guys trust him if you don't show him your scars too?" Fou growled back. "There's no reason for Allen to go into an uncomfortable state if you don't-" Fou cut herself off as Lavi began removing his eye-patch. Allen began to sweat and closed his eyes, turning his head.

"You don't have to-"

"Yes, he does, Allen. They're selfish for making you do something like this." Fou responded with a glare, gesturing for Lavi to continue. Lavi glanced at the others.

"In this band, there are no secrets." Lavi said darkly. Fou blinked at Lavi's supposed 'scar' and poked Allen's elbow. "You have to look, Allen. They'll find out eventually anyways." Allen opened his eyes slowly and looked over, blinking several times. _That...isn't bad..._behind Lavi's eye-patch was a tremendous scar, one similar to Allen's chest, but what interested him the most was that the eye was a different color. A bright brown, which almost looked gold. Fou stared at Allen, who, in turn, stared at Lavi. She could tell that he wanted to touch it. He always found things like this interesting.

"I'm not sure if it's weird, or some kind of deformity, but I tend to get blackish bruises on my legs." Lenalee said. "Sometimes it stays like that for a long time, but people don't normally notice them unless they're intimately staring at my legs. Lavi was the first to point them out to me." _Flirt. _She thought crudely. "Kanda won't show you, but he's got some odd birthmark on his chest." Kanda glared at her. "Miranda's eyes naturally have black under them, kind of like Lavi's grandfather, but it's not bad. I don't see any of these things as disturbing. I think they just shape who you are." Fou patted Allen's back.

"Ouch." Lenalee blinked at her comment. "If that's true, then Allen's just scarred on the inside as well, eh?" She asked jokingly. Allen glared at her.

"Well, we showed you what we've got up our sleeve. Your turn."

"This is...stupid..." Allen mumbled, but began unbuttoning his shirt anyways. He took it off and Lenalee's jaw dropped, making him feel insecure. Lavi stared curiously and Kanda glanced over. Miranda paled even more in color and felt like she was going to be sick. Allen's left arm was completely black with a arrow-like design at his shoulder, ending it there. However, what mostly drew their attention was the huge scar on the right side of his chest. It almost looked like something huge had blasted into him.

"Excuse my curiosity, but what happened to _you?" _Lavi asked incredulously. Allen narrowed his eyes at them.

"Your rusty car is what happened." He answered, buttoning his shirt up again.

"Rusty...huh?" Lavi tilted his head. It clicked in Lenalee's mind. Where that huge scar came from. When Daisya crashed into that vehicle, since the jeep was so rusted out, parts went everywhere. That's where the one casualty came from that the doctor explained to them. They never really thought about it, but was it really coincidence that lead them all here now? Who could've known that Allen could've been the 'innocent bystander' that was hit by their parts?

"It doesn't matter, it was in the past." Allen mumbled. _Even your death, Narain..._he thought sadly. _I don't think I'll ever be able to get over you, but I know you want me to move on, no matter what. So I will...maybe someday I'll find someone I'll love, maybe Lavi will too, but we'll just have to see, huh? _"So now you know...when I get onstage, I just feel that they can see...all of it...I don't know why...and I know it sounds stupid...but that's just how I feel and it's not like you can change the way I look. That's why I said there's nothing you can do."

"Well...for starters, maybe you should start wearing black." Lavi said, completely ignoring Allen's whole 'nothing you can do about it' spout.

"Huh? How would that help?" Allen muttered, narrowing his eyes.

"What happens when a white shirt gets wet?" Lavi asked rhetorically.

"It goes transparent..." Fou answered for him.

"I don't think the clothes really matter..."

"Well fine, but it doesn't look weird."

_What? _

"What are you talking about?" Allen questioned.

"Your whole...thing..." Lavi gestured to his torso. "Your arm, the scar. It isn't weird." Allen wasn't sure how to feel about Lavi's words. Should he feel offended because Lavi was saying his feelings of embarrassment were pointless or should he feel flattered because Lavi was saying that his scar and arm weren't weird at all? Or was he referring to something else? That his torso didn't look weird, it was just his hair and his scar on his face? How was he supposed to feel.

"I don't think I understand." Allen sat down, looking at him expectantly. Lavi, in turn, stood up and walked over to him.

"I'm saying it doesn't look weird." Allen froze, feeling Lavi place his hand on his left shoulder. The younger quickly swatted his hand away.

"Don't touch."

That was when Lavi realized it. The reason why Allen didn't like being touched. Being touched in any way could resort to the person finding out about his insecurities or even more than that. The arm was sensitive, as well as Allen's feelings about it. Fou watched all of this with interest. Allen clearly stated that Lavi was angry with him about Daisya's death, yet here he was trying to help him. But what for? Was it for Allen's sake? Or was it for Innocence's? "Whether you like it or not, people who are important to you are going to find out, and if they're important to you then they won't care. If they care, if they judge you, then they're not worthy of being important. Those strangers out there that are going to stare at you onstage will like you because of your music, not because of who you are. Yeah, there'll be fans that want to know all about you, but they can't do anything unless you let them. They're not going to know." _Lavi...you truly are an amazing person...I wish you didn't hate me...I wish I would have looked both ways...but if I did...would I have ever gotten to meet you? _ Allen looked away from him.

"It...isn't that easy..." He claimed, but knew deep down that Lavi was right. He had no reason to think the way he did, yet he kept thinking it. He was always going to be a mangled mess, and whereas some people thought he looked amazing, he knew that there were others that would look at him with that same disgust in their eyes...all those people before Mana and Neah came into his life. _Neah...but in the end...you turned on me too, didn't you? I wonder if Innocence will do just as you did...eventually... _

"What's so hard about it?" He asked, staring at him stubbornly.

"I just..." _I don't know why it's so hard, but it just is, okay? _He couldn't just say that out loud; Lavi would think he was stupid. But why did he care what Lavi thought? Lavi hated him, so why did it matter? Yeah, Lavi was a admirable person, but why did Allen care about what he thought about him? Was it because he respected him?

"Besides, it's not like you're going to be the center of attention anyways. You're not going to be in the front like Daisya was, you'll be like Lenalee or Kanda and off to the side."

"I don't think that's the point." Fou cut in again. "He's still going to be onstage. Lenalee!" She suddenly shouted, slamming her fist on the table, causing her to jump.

"Wh-what?"

"What would you do if you messed up?"

"I...huh?"

"If you were all playing and you messed up, what would you do?"

"I don't think I would mess up, honestly. We play our pieces perfectly about twelve times before we get onstage so that doesn't happen."

"But what if you did?"

"Well...I'd be really embarrassed, but I'd have to get over it. It's not like it's the end of the world..." She mumbled.

"Hm...okay, well, that completely threw me off, different question. Lavi." She looked over at him. "You claimed that Allen wouldn't be the center of attention, yet you guys don't have a singer and you're a drummer. What are you to do about that?" Lavi looked off to the side.

"We'll figure it out."

"No, no, you have to have these things planned beforehand. You can't just go out and then make up what you want to do."

"I know that!"

"I suppose you could always put Kanda in front." Kanda's face took a disgusted look at her words.

"Fuck no, I'm not singing those shitty songs." He growled. Lavi sweat dropped and Allen frowned.

"I think we need to overlook all the positions first." Fou said, tearing out a piece of paper from a nearby notebook. "Usually, there's the singer here up front. Sometimes they're playing guitar, sometimes not, which is why Daisya was unique. He played keyboard as well as sang. Anyways, if the singer _isn't _playing guitar, the guitarist is usually over here and then the drummer and bassist here...and then if you have a keyboardist, they're usually here..." She wrote out the names of the parts and circled them on the paper. "So, instead of finding a singer, don't you think it would be easier to just find a drummer? That way you could be put on as lead singer?"

"I suppose...that does make sense..." Lavi admitted. "But where could I possibly find one of those?"

"Where could you _not_ find one of those? Miranda, I think you need to start looking. There are several people online that are willing to join a band at any cost."

"Eh?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, there, you're not the manager, you can't just start ordering us around. You're not even in the band." Fou stared at Lavi, not very amused.

"Fine, then I'll be the assistant manager."

"You can't just claim a position on your own! You have to earn your position."

"Fine. Then tell me what you plan to do about your hopeless situation? You could always put Allen on drums, but that isn't his main instrument no matter how you look at it."

"She does have a point, Lavi." Lenalee pointed out quietly. "We're lost if you're not going to be our drummer and Allen isn't going to be our singer."

"Then, we'll find a drummer." Miranda stated. "I'll try my best to look for one, and I hope the rest of you will do the same."

"Miranda..."

"From this point on, practice is cancelled until we can find a drummer. If we don't make it our main focus, then we won't get far."

**April 13th **

"I still can't believe she cancelled practice." Lavi complained as he and Allen surveyed the music store. Miranda had told them (more like forced since neither wanted to go with each other) that they needed to pick up new drumsticks since Lavi's last ones had been lost. Apparently Lavi hadn't played in forever.

"Well, we can't do anything about it besides look for a drummer." Allen commented, looking at some drumsticks that were on sale.

"Yeah, but where the hell are we going to find one? They don't just pop out in the open."

"True, but I'm sure there's got to be one somewhere around here...it'd be impossible for there to be no one in this entire city that can't...play..." Allen trailed off, paling as he saw an entire stack of CDs falling towards him. Lavi looked up curiously, wondering why Allen suddenly stopped talking. His mouth hung agape and all they could do was sit there as the huge stack came tumbling down on top of them. They both covered their heads and waited for the clattering to end.

"Ah! I'm so sorry!" Allen and Lavi slowly looked up to see a man with pale skin and dark clothes. His hair was black, but in front of his face was a long, white bang. "I wasn't looking where I was going...but it was mostly because I tried to carry too many CDs at once..."

"Uh..." Lavi responded dumbly.

"I-it's okay...do you work here?" Allen asked, slowly starting to gather the fallen CDs up.

"Ah, yes, I've been working here for a month now...but it seems like I'm still having trouble carrying all these CDs around..." He complained, picking them up as well.

"You don't have a cart to put them on?" The shop went silent and a blush began crawling up his face. He dropped all the CDs he picked up and hid his face with embarrassment.

"I didn't even think of that! Oh, I'm such an idiot." Allen and Lavi both sweat dropped. _This guy is like a genderbent Miranda..._Lavi thought.

"Why don't you go get it?"

"Yes! Thank you very much, Mister..."

"You can just call me Allen." Allen replied.

"Okay...my name is Alistair Krory...but you can just call me Krory...only one person in the world ever calls me by my first name...though I'm not sure we'll be seeing each other a lot..." He slowly turned from Allen to Lavi. "I'd also like to apologize to your friend h..." Krory paled at the sight of Allen's 'friend,' until a huge blush overcame his cheeks. "Y-you're!"

"I'm...?"

"Oh my! I cannot believe what I am seeing. Aren't you the drummer from the long-awaited Innocence?!" Lavi blinked as Krory went on his knees and pulled at his cheeks. "You're really there!" Allen sweat dropped and slightly pitied Lavi. Krory suddenly whipped his head around to Allen. "Does that make you the new keyboardist everyone's been talking about?!" Allen had his own turn of getting his cheeks pulled on.

"Who _are_ you?" Lavi asked, rubbing his cheeks.

"As I said before, my name is Krory...I'm just a bit of a fan of you guys. Your music is amazing."

"Thanks...?"

"Mr. Krory, do you happen to play an instrument?" Allen suddenly asked, bringing his attention once again to the teen.

"Well...I do play a bit of drums...but not that much...I don't practice a lot because I'm always working." Allen looked over at Lavi, who gave said boy a knowing look.

"How good are you?"

* * *

"Everyone, meet Krory." Allen said to the group, gesturing to the nervous man.

"Um...hello, it's a p-pleasure to meet all of you..." He mumbled.

"Allen...Lavi..." Lenalee said slowly. "Miranda told you to pick up drumsticks, not a middle-aged man."

"He's not just _any_ middle-aged man, Lena." Lavi winked. "He's a drummer."

"Eh...?"

"You said that we couldn't practice until we found a drummer, right? Well, here you go, we found one."

"Lavi, she meant a drummer to play in our band." Lenalee said, face palming.

"Well, _yeah, _why else would we have brought him here and showed him where I live?" Lavi questioned, rolling his eyes. Lenalee copied his actions.

"Because you can be quite dense sometimes."

"Ouch, Lena." Lavi mumbled.

"Did you even listen to him play yet?"

"No, I was going to wait for everyone else first. That way the decision wouldn't only be up to me. If the decisions were up to me, Allen wouldn't be here right now, right?" Lenalee noticed Allen winced at his words. _Talk about hears, he's right in front of you, moron. _Fou thought, smacking Lavi upside the head. "What was that for?!"

"I think the question in: what _wasn't_ it for?" She replied, looking towards Allen. "How did you guys manage to find this guy anyways?"

"The music store...we were looking at drumsticks and then he dropped CDs on us." Lavi nodded at Allen's words, confirming his story.

"Which, I really, truly, am sorry for." Krory apologized again.

"Nah, it's alright! If you didn't do that, we wouldn't have met ya, Krorykins!" The redhead grinned, throwing his arm around him. _Jeez, I wish he was that friendly with me..._Allen thought darkly. He turned his attention somewhere else, towards Kanda, who was just entering the living room with a case of soda. He narrowed his eyes at Allen, leaving the younger to turn his attention somewhere else, the front door. No, looking at the front door made him want to leave. _When is Miranda getting back? She's the only one who's actually nice to me..._Allen thought tiredly. Just then, as if Allen's thoughts occurred to the woman, Lenalee's cellphone rang. The caller: Miranda.

"Hello?" Lenalee answered. You could hear panicked shouting on the other line and she sweat dropped. "Alright, alright, just calm down. Where are you?" She paused. "Okay, give me some more clues." A little less shouting later, and Lenalee soon hung up, releasing a huge sigh. "She's lost."

"Where did she wander off this time?" Lavi asked lamely.

"I think she's in the mall down by that Chinese shop." Lenalee answered uncertainly. "Still, looks like we've got to go find her."

"About thaaat..." Allen and Fou said together slowly.

"We can't go." Fou said, staying put as everyone stood up.

"Why not?" Lavi asked, narrowing his eyes at them.

"Because Allen and I got kicked out of that mall."

"You got...kicked out?" Lenalee said slowly.

"Banned. We're not allowed to go there. Last time we tried, Allen got the shit beat out of him by security guards." Allen nodded, leaving the rest of the crew to sweat drop.

"I wasn't about to pay that stupidly expensive fine." He complained. "So I got away with a little smack on the hand."

"Pfft, smack on the hand, more like a broken rib or two."

"Same thing."

"The point is: we can't come with you."

"You can come with us." Lenalee butt in. "You just have to stay in the car."

"I suppose we could do that." Allen thought aloud.

"Good, now let's go get Miranda."

* * *

"Holy shit, is that even legal?" Lavi wheezed, holding his stomach.

"We warned you." Fou pointed out.

"I didn't think they'd break into our van!"

"Those guys _really_ don't like you..." Miranda mumbled, watching as Fou put a bandaid across Allen's nose.

"Mhmm."

"So, I suppose we'll have to audition you now, huh, Mr. Krory?" Miranda asked, turning towards the pale man. "Though I am a bit surprised that it was you two who were the ones to find him." She looked over at Lavi and Allen.

"Should I feel offended? I feel like I should feel offended." Lavi commented. Miranda chuckled and shook her head.

"No, it's just that you two are the ones who don't get along the most. Which also reminds me: if we're going to be a band together, we're going to have to work on band dynamics."

"Wow, Miranda, when did you get so professional?" Lenalee teased, elbowing her childishly. Miranda blushed.

"I just thought that since we're going to be back, we might as well start trying even harder now. Last time, we took it easy, we didn't take as many risks as we should've. We were playing music for fun, and while that is good, we need to make an actual career out of it." Lenalee teased her some more, and she blushed accordingly. Lavi looked over at Allen, thinking over Miranda's words. _You two are the ones who don't get along the most...i__f we're going to be a band together, we're going to have to work on band dynamics. _Lavi scratched his scalp, wondering what to do.

Miranda was right though. He needed to learn how to get along with Allen.

**April 18th**

After showing them his skills, Krory was easily added to the band, and practice had started up once again. Today was Saturday, a day with no practice, but yet, Lavi found himself walking along the sidewalk, about to attempt to perfect the band. He had a bad feeling about this, but, this was the only way to help fix up a broken piece of the band. He lifted his hand to knock on the door, but stopped midway, hearing blasting music and laughter echo throughout the large house. The redhead shook his head and rang the doorbell instead. It made a loud blaring noise, and Lavi suddenly felt awkward. There was a soft conversation inside before someone went to go answer the door. A few seconds later and the door swung open.

"What the fuck...? It's, uh, Saturday, right?"

"Yes." Lavi answered. "But Miranda said that I should try to...uh..." Lavi pursed his lips. "Get along? Something like that. So she sent me here."

"I don't think you want to spend your day hanging out with us. Go make fun of some little kids or something."

"No can do. I have dedicated myself to hanging out with you guys today."

"If you insist, but don't say I didn't warn you."

Yes, Miranda sent Lavi to go to Fou's house to make friends.

"No, I don't want to." He heard Allen's voice from the kitchen. "...and I can't believe you guys baked a pie solely for this reason, I am so disappointed in all of you. Oh, hey Fou, who was...oh." Allen's once delighted voice transformed into that of a blank page. Nothing to read.

"Apparently Lavi's going to be hanging out with us today. Basically, just pretend like he's not there."

"But I'm supposed to be trying to-" Lavi started, but when Fou said she was going to pretend like he wasn't there, she meant it.

"Anyways! Where were we? Oh, yeah, Allen." She looked at the boy and he sighed.

"I don't want to."

"Why?"

"Because that's a waste of pie."

All but Lavi sweat dropped.

"If you do it, you can eat it." She urged. Allen seemed to think about this.

"But I can't if it's everywhere."

"Yes you can. Besides, it's a dare, you can't go back to truth."

_No way...are they playing Truth or Dare? _Lavi thought amusingly. _Kids. _

"Ugh, I hate this game." Allen muttered. Fou grinned and watched him stand up and go towards the counter. Lavi looked up to see him bringing back a delicious pie. _Oooh...yummy...I want sooome..._ "It's not fair." Allen pouted. They all laughed while Lavi just looked flat out confused. What was the dare? Did he have to eat the whole thing or something? _You'd think he'd be happy about...th...at..._Lavi's mouth slowly hung open as Allen lifted the pie and smashed it into his face. Lavi held a hand to his mouth, trying his best not to laugh along with everyone else.

"I love this game~"

"Why's it always me...and why does it always involve wasting food?" Allen whined, wiping his face off with paper towels. Fou glided her index finger down his pie-covered cheek and stuck it in her mouth.

"Mm. Chocolate."

"A waste of chocolate..." He muttered.

"Yeah, yeah, so who's next?" Originally, it would be Rikei, but Lavi just happened to sit in between Allen and the brunet. They all looked at him and he held his hands up in defense.

"Just pretend like I'm not here."

Fou's evil grin made shivers go down his spine.

"Actually, I've got a better idea." She smirked. "If you want to get along with us, you have to join in with our activities too. Now: truth or dare?" Shifu scooted away from Fou, unable to take the evil aura radiating from her.

"Uh...I thought you said-"

"Forget what I said. Truth. Or. Dare."

"I think I'm too scared to say Dare..." Lavi mumbled. Allen face palmed.

"Dare it is!"

"What? I said I _didn't_ want to!"

"Lavi, you should have listened to the rules first." Allen mumbled.

"Rules?! There are _rules_ for this game now?"

"Other than the original rules, Fou added a new rule. If you say the word Dare, no matter what's in the sentence, you have to do Dare. If you say the word Truth, even if you don't want to do it, you have to do Truth; but, you can also switch to Dare if you don't want to do Truth, however, you're not allowed to switch from Dare to Truth."

"Why the fuck not?!"

"Because it's more fun that way." Fou answered, grinned. "Allen, stop wiping your face."

"Why?" Allen asked slowly.

"Because, Lavi's dare is to lick it off."

Allen's jaw dropped and he dropped the paper towel in shock, Lou Fa blushed as bright as a Christmas tree, Shifu giggled softly, Rikei busted out laughing, and Fou had the most evil grin on her look. Lavi shrugged, as if he wasn't fazed at all. He wasn't going to let Fou get to him, even if he really, really, _really, _didn't want to do this. "Fine."

"What?!" Allen shouted. "No, no, no! I won't stand for it! Change the dare!" He said, pointing at Fou accusingly.

"No can do, sprout, I already said it."

"Lavi is not a dog, he is not licking my f..." Allen's face went bright red as Lavi licked his cheek. He shouted and shoved Lavi away. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

"Um, my dare?"

"NO!"

"You said it yourself, I can't change to Truth, so..."

"STOP TRYING TO LICK ME!"

"But I have to..."

"This is great." Fou and Rikei laughed together as Lavi continued to lick and attempt to lick Allen's face. He failed half the time.

_From now on, choose Truth. _Lavi thought as Allen tried drowning himself in the sink. _Though, I've got to agree with Allen, that was a waste of good chocolate pie. _He thought, digging his finger through the pan and eating it quietly as Lou Fa tried to squeeze as many marshmallows in her mouth as possible and then try to get them in the shape of a pyramid on a plate. Rikei had to strip tease to all of them, and Shifu had to kiss Rikei (to which the brunet exploded for some reason), Fou had to go screaming fire around the house (which caused their supervisor, a man named Bak to bust out in hives and pass out) and all of it was pretty amusing. It was back to Allen's turn now and the boy seemed overly cautious about his decision. Lavi began to wonder why no one was picking truth. "Allen, you have to hug Lavi until we're done playing unless another dare involves you."

"Great." Allen grumbled. Lavi supposed that, in a way, Fou was trying to help.

Or she was just being evil.

Lavi was unsure of how to feel when Allen hugged him. To be honest, the last time someone hugged him for such a long time was at Daisya's funeral. That was a pretty bad time. After that, everyone was too afraid to hug him and comfort him, they were afraid of how he'd feel. So when Allen hugged him, he wasn't sure how to feel about it. Yeah, it was just a dare, but it's been awhile since anyone embraced him. "Uh, hello? Anyone alive in there?"

"Huh?"

"You have to choose Dare."

"Why would I have to choose Dare? I didn't s...fuck." Rikei bust out into hysterics once again.

"Classic, Fou." Shifu complimented.

"I'm amazing, I know." Fou gloated in return. She grinned evilly at Lavi. "Hm...what to do, what to do~" She hummed. "Hug him back."

"Is that it?"

"Until your next dare, yes."

"What is up with her..." Lavi mumbled as he hugged Allen. Allen stiffened up a little, but relaxed once Lou Fa had started her dare. He wondered if he should tell Lavi why she was doing this to them. Maybe not...it was a bit embarrassing on his part. "First question: why isn't anyone saying Truth?"

"You don't want to say Truth. No matter how bad the dare might is, you never want to say Truth."

"Why?"

"Because usually she give you the most impossible choices and usually they're sexual."

"...oh."

"Everyone who says Truth in front of her, always switches to Dare."

"Damn..."

"Ahem." Fou cleared her throat. Allen looked over lamely.

"What?"

"Your turn."

"You already know what I'm going to choose."

"Dare?" She grinned and Allen nodded.

"Give Lavi a hickey."

"Kill me now." Allen whispered.

"If you want me to truly do that, I will." Lavi whispered back. "I thought you said the sexual things are only with Truth?" He whispered, his voice breaking.

"They are, until she gets really into it...it's only going to get worse after this...usually at this point she brings out the alcohol."

"Allen. You're not doing it." Said girl pointed out.

"I'm getting around to it, okay!?" He groaned. _This is so embarrassing. _Allen thought as he pressed his lips against Lavi's throat. _Oi, put it somewhere less noticeable! _Lavi thought tiredly.

"I'll go get the drinks..."

For the next two hours, Lavi and Allen had to deal with Fou and ended up getting a lot closer than any of the two wanted to. Later on, they all sobered up and teased each other for what all they did. Allen, who _had _to've been a lightweight, had switched his hugging position to that of laying on his lap...which he was still doing...Lavi was pretty sure he wasn't completely sobered up yet. They were a weird group, but Lavi had to admit that they knew how to have fun. "The night's not over yet! What do you guys want to do next?"

"Hmm...how about we play a board game?" Shifu suggested.

"What are you, five?"

"You're the one who owns them." He pointed out.

"Correction: Bak's the one that owns them."

"Whatever, same thing..."

"Let's go do something more fun than that."

"Like what?" Lou Fa asked.

"How about we sleep...'m tired..." Allen mumbled, burying his face in Lavi's stomach. Everyone sweat dropped.

"He's a bit cuddly when he's drunk." Fou informed.

"I see that."

"It'll probably take him a little while to sober up and whereas going out in public with a drunk minor is probably a bad idea, we're going to do it anyways. Let's go eat, I'm _starving." _Fou stood up and stretched. The others followed suit and Lavi cleared his throat before gesturing to the teenager laying in his lap. "Push him off or something."

Lavi would love to do that, but he was trying to get along with Allen, not have the boy hate him. Besides, Lavi was beginning to see why he wasn't able to befriend Allen at first. Not only is his music style the same, but his attitude also reminded him of Daisya. Daisya wasn't really polite as Allen was, but he was insanely sarcastic and once Allen had opened up to Lavi, he was sassy as well. "Alleeeen." Lavi poked the boy's cheek. "Get uuuup."

"I don't waaaanna."

"We're getting food though."

"Food?"

_Ah, that's right...Allen is obsessed with food. _

"Yeeep. We're going out to eat."

"Meeeeh." Allen rolled back over. Lavi huffed.

"Get up."

"I don't wannaaaa. Food is expensive." He whined. "Let's eat heeere..."

"It's not expensive if you're not paying for it." Fou cut in. Lavi didn't even notice she came back. Allen turned back towards her.

"Are you gonna pay?" He asked, giving her the puppy dog eyes.

"That was the plan."

"Okay, let's go." Lavi sweat dropped as Allen easily got off his lap and marched to the door. He was swaying at all...either the mention of food sobered him up or he wasn't even drunk to begin with. The redhead honestly hoped it was the first one. If it was the second one, it would cause many frustrating questions to plague his mind.

Twenty minutes later found them at a fast food restaurant where Allen was sipping from his chocolate milkshake without a care in the world. He'd already wolfed down enough food to feed three adult men and to keep him from ordering more food, Fou insisted they all get dessert. Lavi began to wonder if Fou was just paying for her and Allen's meal or if he had to pay for his food too. He wouldn't mind, it wasn't like he was poor or anything; and this definitely wasn't a date, so he really didn't see any reason for her to pay for him. Usually it was him out of the five that would pay for the food anyways. Daisya would always say that it was fitting for Lavi to pay for the food. Lavi never really understood what Daisya meant by that...it's not like he could ask him either...thinking of Daisya lead him to look over at Allen. Maybe Lenalee was right...maybe he shouldn't blame Allen. After all, Allen was just accustomed to his overly-cautious boyfriend. He looked away from the boy and out the window. _What would Daisya say, I wonder...more importantly...what would he think of Allen? _

"Yo, Gloomy Bear, whatcha thinking about over there?" Fou teased. He wasn't sure how to reply, so he simply shrugged and continued eating his pie. Allen looked up at him from his milkshake, going through his own little problems in his mind, wondering if he should apologize again. But it was the first time the two weren't tiptoeing around each other since he confessed it was his fault Daisya died. After that happened, they couldn't even look each other straight in the eye or stand to be near each other...but now, they were all sitting here having a blast at a random restaurant, not even speaking about the past, or avoiding looking at each other.

Did that mean they were friends?

* * *

**Why does it feel like a lot has happened in this story? I'm only on chapter five...hm...anyways, thank you so much to my lovely reviewers: devit-jasdevi, Fanboygirl, and Kyla! Wow...I wrote a chapter without a single lyric in it...oh well at least something important happened and it wasn't just a little friendship filler ^^;; Now to see if I can update a different story...**


	6. Chapter 6

**April 20th**

Everyone was confused. Well, everyone meaning Miranda, Krory, Lenalee, and Kanda. When Allen showed up for practice, Lavi actually started a conversation with him. All on his own. They never spoke unless they were forced into an awkward conversation that usually ended tensely. But today was different. For some reason, Allen and Lavi could find many things to talk to each other about today and it just threw everything off balance. Miranda _did _send Lavi over to make up with Allen, but she just expected them to be neutral around each other. Fou acted like this was normal: which was just flat out weird because she was usually angry with Lavi half the time. _Is this...some kind of prank? _Lenalee wondered, looking over at Miranda for help. The woman looked just as hopeless as she felt. Currently the two were whispering about Rikei and Shifu, whom Fou explained to be the other two boys that played with them in Allen's audition.

"So...Rikei actually likes Shifu."

"Apparently so, it actually surprised me at first..." Allen mumbled back.

"Who does Shifu like?" Lavi questioned curiously. Allen gave him a shrug.

"I always thought he was asexual to be honest."

"What about Lou Fa?" Allen sweat dropped. He completely forgot how oblivious Lavi could be for being someone so observant.

"Me."

"Ouch, bet that's awkward."

"No kidding."

"Okay, what about Fou?"

"I think she's actually starting to like Bak...I mean, they never act lovey dovey for being married, but she's actually starting to show _affection_ towards him."

"I didn't even think she could do that." Lavi whispered back. Fou's right eyebrow twitched and she resisted the urge to punch the both of them. She probably would've had they not been getting along so well. "Okay, so then who do you like?"

"Who do I...? I don't like anyone." Allen replied. Lavi raised his eyebrow.

"No one? Not even a crush? Fou said you had a crush on her once."

"That was once." Allen hissed. "But no, I don't like anyone."

"I see..."

"What about you guys?" Allen said, slightly changing the topic.

"Lenalee...eh, I don't think she's _allowed _to like someone, Kanda...I don't think it's _possible_ for him to like anyone, Miranda is asexual, but I think she might have something for one of Kanda's brothers, Noise, and I myself don't really like anyone in particular either."

"I see..." Allen repeated Lavi's words from earlier.

"Are you guys going to keep blabbering over there or are we actually going to continue practice?" Lenalee chided. She had to admit she was a bit jealous of Lavi. Allen hadn't opened up like that around her or anyone else here. Well, he was more relaxed around Miranda, but he didn't start up any conversations with her or anything.

"Sorry..." They both apologized together.

With that, practice went on. Allen and Lavi still had a few small conversations from time to time, but they got a lot done: including teaching Krory some of the songs that they were to perform in what Allen hoped was months time. Even if he was still cast off to the side, being up on stage in front of hundreds of people still terrified him. _But their eyes won't be on you..._Allen thought, calming himself a little. It was five o'clock, yet practice ended early (about twenty minutes ago) and everyone was basically just hanging out. Allen kept his eye on the time, even though he didn't have to work until two hours later...though, the time did seem to go by quicker ever since he got a job...

"Hey, Allen." Lenalee approached said teen in the kitchen when he was by himself. He diverted his attention to her.

"Hm?"

"Are you busy after practice? I was thinking since you and Lavi got to know each other, that we could too. I think all of us should be able to get along." She pointed out. Allen seemed hesitant with his reply.

"I'm busy until about six...forty-five...?"

"That's only about two hours..." Lenalee mumbled. Allen rose an eyebrow.

"How long were you hoping for?"

"What? Oh no! That's fine. Fine. So, do you want to go do something then? Just the two of us maybe?" She asked hopefully. Allen hummed to himself and shrugged.

"I don't see why not."

Allen thought just Lenalee was coming along. He didn't know Kanda was coming as well. _I suppose it won't be so bad...you're doing this for Lenalee. For Lenalee, you can put up with this prick. _He thought as another cursed insult came out of the older boy's mouth. _Jesus Christ, what did I do to piss this guy off anyways? _"So, Allen, how long have you been into music?" Lenalee asked, bringing him out of his sulking. She sipped her hot cappuccino with caution, wincing at the hot liquid.

"Hm...about ten years."

The hot liquid she once consumed was now on the table.

"T-ten years? How old are you again?"

"Eighteen."

"So...you started music when you were about _eight?_" Allen nodded, a bit confusingly at that.

"Is that...a bad thing?"

"N-no, not at all. That's a good thing actually...how did you get into music?" She questioned. Allen thought a bit on that. Did he really want to tell them? Hell, he didn't even want to think about it himself. It was a little embarrassing at the same time.

"Eyyyy, well if it isn't the short stuff!"

_Oh shit. _Allen paled as two certain twins wandered their way over to the table. Two twins that were his _coworkers. _

"Oh god." Allen muttered. "I'm going to go. You can come with if you want." He said, standing up before trotting off quickly. Kanda and Lenalee gave each other puzzled expressions. Well, Lenalee's _looked _like a puzzled expression; Kanda's just looked like a weird glare.

"He ran off." The two looked up to see a defeated man about Lavi's age. He was being followed by another, who had...quite the piercing there...they were both wearing heavy eyeliner. The two both recognized them almost immediately. Devit and Jasdero from that one cafe/bar they'd been kicked out of a long time ago...they were quite rude and extreme pranksters. It didn't seem like Allen was the type to be friends with them.._that could possibly__ be why he ran away? _Lenalee guessed, watching him walk into a random store.

"Oh no." She mumbled, grabbing Kanda's arm. "Let's go."

"I can walk on my own." Kanda growled. "Why do we need to go anyways?" He questioned. Lenalee pointed to the store he just walked into which had large words over the top that spelled out 'Spencer's'.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me. He's eighteen, idiot, he'll be fine."

* * *

"I'm scarred for life. Eternally." Allen whispered to himself as Lenalee dragged him out of the mall they went to. Lenalee gave Kanda a pointed look. Kanda returned it with a 'fuck off' look.

"Why did you go in there then?" Lenalee asked. Allen shrugged. She rolled her eyes. "Next time just follow us, not wander off by yourself."

"Why do they have that store in there...? What if a little kid walked in there?" Allen whispered, horrified. Lenalee giggled.

"Usually parents keep an eye on their children or leave them at that random play-place thing."

"That place shouldn't even exist...don't they have adult stores for that?"

"Oh? You've been in one of those? If you've been in one, why were you so scarred?"

"No one ever said I went in willingly..." Allen muttered, remembering the time Narain practically forced him to come inside. He wasn't even old enough, but the cashier didn't even care...and then Narain actually _bought_ something and Allen felt terrified for himself. _Narain..._Allen thought glumly, looking towards the floor. Despite it being an immediate death for the both of them, the way Mana died seemed more humane than the way Narain died. Mana didn't have several shrapnel carved into his body and even though the doctor said Narain died instantly, he felt the brunet's grasp hold tightly onto his hand for a few seconds...or maybe it was just his imagination...maybe he was too shocked to even realize it. Lenalee noticed the drastic mood change and pulled him towards a restaurant. He didn't even realize that they were in there until she waved a hand over his face.

"Earth to beansprout~!"

"My name is Allen." Allen corrected and looked around confusingly. "What are we doing here?"

"Wow, what a fucking idiot." Kanda commented.

"Takes one to know one." Allen spat back, tired of being defenselessly bullied.

"The fuck did you just say?" Kanda growled.

"Wow, what an idiot." Allen retorted.

"Guys come on, not in public." Lenalee whispered, waving at them. She was happy they were getting along though...if you could call making death threats to each other 'getting along'.

"Che. Fucking sprout."

"My name is Allen. How many times do I have to repeat it before it gets through your thick skull?"

"Fuck off."

After a little more bickering, the two went silent; courtesy to Lenalee's foot not so politely kicking their shins. They sat down and ate together (Allen made sure to thank Lenalee) for awhile before heading back to Lenalee's car (and yes, Allen was jealous). "Well, that was fun." Lenalee smiled, nodding. It wasn't as long as Lavi got to hang out with him, but Lenalee was sure that Allen opened up to them a little today. It wasn't something huge, but at least he took part and didn't loom near them aimlessly. They parted ways at Fou's house and Allen immediately got ready for work. He felt tired, exhausted even, but the thought of having extra money to spend is what made him want to keep moving today. He really wanted to get him and Cross out of that shitty house they lived in...or maybe he could buy the house altogether and upgrade it. Tear out the shitty carpets and repaint everything. Maybe even get them some decent beds and furniture. _Shouldn't Cross be the one doing this though? _Allen thought, sweat dropping.

At least he was getting somewhere.

**April 23rd**

The next few days went along normally as they would. Lavi would occasionally play pranks on Kanda and sometimes even Krory. Krory seemed to fit in the band quite nicely actually...unlike Allen, no one argued with or about him and he seemed to make himself a small place in their practice room. Lenalee tried to talk to Allen a bit more, leading him to think she was up to something, and Miranda gave him encouragement and mentioned going onstage more than usual. Today would be different though. Not only did he have the day off, but the youngest members of the band suggested that they relocate after practice to Kanda's foster father's house. They said that meeting more people involved with each other would be healthy for the band and help out in conversations of sorts. Allen didn't mind, really. He didn't have work after practice, so he was completely fine with it.

...that was, until he actually arrived.

Apparently Kanda didn't live with his father like his brothers. Despite being quite grown men, they lived with their father because he was 'attached'. Lavi informed him about how loving his father was and how 'clingy' he tended to be. Allen was more interested when Lenalee mentioned that he played piano from time to time. Maybe he and this man could get along...maybe. From the way Kanda acted...there was no telling what this man would be like. They took Lenalee's car and pulled up to a very average house. It was pretty big, but with four sons, perhaps that was okay. It wasn't a huge mansion or anything, but pretty impressive. _Is everyone in the band rich? _Allen wondered as Lavi knocked on the front door. A brunet man with quite a nice build answered. His hair was spiked back and he looked over them all a lot. Miranda wasn't present of course. She said she had some 'business to attend to', but everyone already knew that it was because of Noise, who lived there.

"Who're these guys?" Chaoji asked, gesturing to Allen and Krory.

"Krory is our new drummer, and Allen is our new keyboardist."

A bad vibe must have came over Chaoji for him to give the youngest member a dark look like that. _I need to get used to these evil looks. _Allen thought miserably as he followed everyone inside. He decided to stay in the back where he'd be less noticed. "Father! We've got guests!" Chaoji shouted before storming off to his room. Allen twiddled his thumbs nervously. He was going to meet Daisya and Kanda's father...he felt anxious.

Allen never thought that he'd ever see this man again.

"Eh!" The man noticed him just a little too quickly and rushed past everyone. "Is that really you?! Allen! How've you been?!"

Froi Tiedoll.

He was one of Cross' old friends, and also a surgeon...or former surgeon. After being his patient, Allen never met the man ever again and hoped that he never would. He did quite some embarrassing things. Everyone stared at him blankly. Except Krory, he didn't really know any connections so he just felt a little left out. Kanda, Lavi, and Lenalee however...they were a bit surprised. "You look well!"

"Ah, yes...as do you..." Allen said awkwardly as he kept his gaze to the floor.

"You know Kanda's dad? What the hell?" Lavi questioned.

"Oh, right! Allen was a patient of mine at the hospital!" Tiedoll explained.

"Patient?" Lenalee asked curiously.

"Mhmm, he was a casualty from...the accident...that jeep really did a number on him." Tiedoll chuckled. _Is this really something you want to joke about...?_ Allen thought, staring at Tiedoll. He could tell the man was hurting just talking about it.

"Jeep...?" The three suddenly remembered the scars all over Allen's body, including the huge one on the right side of his chest. _That was...from us? _Lenalee thought, suddenly feeling very horrible.

"Mhmm." Tiedoll hummed. "You were quite young then, hm? You know, I honestly didn't know if I could leave you like that with someone of Cross' caliber."

"Despite his irresponsibility, he could somewhat take care of the situation." Allen informed. "He obviously had help, though."

"I suppose...it still scared me. I suppose as long as you're sane, that's good." Allen chuckled at his comment and Tiedoll smiled.

"Haha...what is going on?" Lavi asked, looking at Lenalee for an answer. She shrugged.

"They're just talking about the past, I believe."

"Yeah, yeah, I know that; but what does he mean by 'sane'? Was Allen _insane_ before?"

"Lavi...he got hit by a car and he watched his boyfriend die before his eyes, what do _you_ think?" Lenalee asked incredulously.

"Well, we went through the same thing..." Lavi pointed out.

"We got to talk to Daisya before he passed. This all happened suddenly for him, remember?"

While the two were rambling to each other, Tiedoll had already showed Allen to the kitchen and sat him down for tea. Allen felt incredibly guilty before this man. If he looked both ways, his son would still be alive...so would Narain..._but you already know that...don't you, Tiedoll? _Allen stared at said man with a suspicious eye. Why did he act so friendly with him if he knew why everything had happened? He knew...yet..._if you knew it was my fault...why did you save me? _Was it because it was humane to do so? Allen was suffering then...so why didn't Tiedoll just put him out of his misery? He wasn't even supposed to survive that crash...so why did Tiedoll try so hard? The others soon joined them at the table and Lavi took notice of how stiff Allen looked sitting there. He was the complete opposite of relaxed.

"So, why have you all decided to visit?" Tiedoll asked, smiling delightedly.

"What, we need a reason to visit now?" Lavi asked, grinning widely.

"You guys do not come over as much as you used to." Tiedoll pointed out. "I thought something bad had happened, but it doesn't seem that way. In fact, it seems you've made some new friends. Mind introducing yourself, young man?" Tiedoll asked, looking at Krory.

"My name is Alistair Krory..." Krory started quietly. "You can just call me Krory though. Only someone really important calls me Alistair."

"Haha, so you're like darling Yuu then?"

"Don't call me that." Kanda hissed immediately.

"I don't mind if you call me by my first name, I suppose..." Krory said quietly. "It's just that the person I loved was the only one who ever called me by my given name..."

Ouch.

"Ah...she's...not...um..." Now Tiedoll felt awkward...and guilty.

"She's in a coma as of late." Krory nodded somberly.

"I see...well, I hope she recovers soon, dear boy. Are you in the band as well then?" He questioned innocently. Krory blushed and nodded.

"I...yes, I'm not as talented as Lavi is, but I am their new drummer..."

"What do you need a drummer for?" Tiedoll asked Lavi incredulously. The redhead hummed.

"Allen's got stage fright, so he can't sing in front of large crowds. So, I'm transferring to lead singer." He informed.

"Ah, I see. That leaves Allen as the new keyboardist, does it not?"

"Yeah..." Lavi answered awkwardly. He wondered how _Allen _felt right now._ Maybe coming here was a bad idea after all..._

"Well! You all must be hungry, I'll fix you something to eat!" Tiedoll chimed, changing the subject. Allen bit his cheek. Why did he want to apologize so badly? Naturally he did since he was at fault for Daisya's death, but there was something else...was it because he felt like Tiedoll would think he was replacing Daisya? Allen really wasn't trying to...he was only trying to help Innocence get back on their feet.

"Sooo...where's Fou at? Isn't she like, your assistant therapist thing or something?" Lenalee asked.

"She had plans today." Allen answered. "She does have a life outside of mine, you know." He continued with a smile.

"It's kinda weird...you two are, like, always together..." Lavi commented.

"I suppose..."

"How did you guys meet?" Lenalee asked curiously.

"Hm...she spilled her drink on me." Allen replied easily.

"...um...?"

"I was at a restaurant. She was being careless...vlogging or something...and she wasn't looking where she was going then she bumped into me and spilled her drink on me." Allen explained.

"Vlogging?"

"Yeah, she has a YouTube Channel."

"_Really?" _Lavi asked incredulously.

"Is that surprising?" Allen asked.

"Does she have subscribers? She's kinda...mean, so..."

"She does." Allen nodded. He furrowed his eyebrows. "Now that I think about it...I wonder if she put that on her channel..." _I looked like hell..._

"Pfft, wasn't this like years ago?"

"Three, yes. A few days after I got out of the hospital after the accident, actually." Allen informed.

"No way! Do you want to check?" Lavi didn't know why, but he really wanted to see what Allen looked like after Narain. He saw what he looked like before...but not after.

"Check?"

"Yeah, here, look, I have a Youtube App." Lavi said, scooting closer to Allen and scrolling through his apps. Allen glared at Lavi's wallpaper.

"Oi."

"...yeah?"

"Delete that picture." He demanded.

"What pi-oh...no way." Lavi snorted, pulling up the YouTube App.

"Delete. It."

"Whyyyy?"

"Because I hate it. I look stupid, delete it."

"What's your background this time?" Lenalee asked, scooting next to him.

"Eh, we were playing Truth or Dare at Fou's house and Allen had to pie himself in the face. So I snapped a quick pic. It's a little blurry, but it was funny as hell."

"I hate all of you." Allen mumbled.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyways, what's Fou's name?"

"The Great Deity. She's sometimes known as 'Deity-sama'." Allen replied.

"Deity-sama? Isn't that some Japanese thing?" Lavi asked, looking at Kanda.

"Yeah." Allen answered. "Anyways."

"Oh, right!" Lavi typed it into the search bar and looked for her name. Allen stopped him, recognizing her photo.

"There, that's her."

"Oh yeah...whoa, what the fuck? She's got like thousands of subscribers?!"

"Yeah? I don't really know how YouTube works. Don't have one, don't need one."

"That's a lot...not like huge like PewDiePie or Game Grumps or anything, but...uh...I'm gonna shut up now." Lavi said, seeing the puzzled look on Allen's face. He clicked on her icon, bringing them to a cool color scheme and searched through her videos. "Wow...she vlogs a lot." Lavi commented. "This is going to take awhile."

Half an hour of scrolling later...

"Wait, I think I got it...you know she has you in some of her other videos? Pfft haha, look at the title." Allen took the device and narrowed his eyes at it. _Deity-sama's Cafe Adventures Part 3: How To Piss a Brit Off In Thirty Seconds__? _

"Lovely." Allen commented sarcastically.

"Let's watch it!"

"Uh, why? I'll look depressing."

"Come ooon."

"Whatever, that's your decision, I'm not stopping you." They had to skip more than halfway through it to see Allen. It was quite hilarious. Lavi rewound a few seconds before and Fou was holding the camera far away with a selfie stick (most likely before they were cool...and probably not even called a selfie stick at the time) and rambling about what her drink tasted like when she ran into the one and only Allen Walker. Allen _glared_ at her.

"Whoops, sorry ab...pfft..." She snorted. "What happened to you? Get hit by a car?"

"Um. Yeah." Allen replied back bitterly.

"Spot on." She commented, giving the stick to Shifu. "Hold this."

Allen _did_ look depressing. He had bandages...everywhere...

She took off her jacket and handed it to Allen. He gave her an odd look. "No thank you."

"Look, dude, I'm sorry. I don't really apologize often. So here. Apology. Accept it. You look like an idiot with bright neon blue all over yourself."

"Thanks."

"Pfft, dude, come on." She _forcefully_ put it around his shoulders.

"I told you-"

"Fucking take it before I punch you."

Past Allen blinked and accepted it. He didn't exactly want anymore bruises than he already had. "So what's your name, little guy?"

"Little...you're shorter than I am..." Allen commented, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Barely." She replied, holding her hand up. Allen was barely an inch taller. Lavi turned his head to the current Allen.

"Holy shit, you have gotten taller."

"Of course I have..."

"Or she just got shorter." Lenalee teased. Allen glared.

"There's no way-"

"Shhh!" Lavi shushed them and they turned their attention back to the video.

"Allen."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, short stack. My name is Fou."

You could see Allen practically fuming with anger.

"Good to know, I'll keep that in mind for sometime in the future."

"Is this you trying to befriend me?" She grinned. Allen's glare hardened.

"Sarcasm is a gift that only smart people understand, isn't it?"

"Ouch. No, really, though." Fou took the arm that wasn't in a sling and pulled out a permanent marker before writing on his arm. Allen's eyes were quite wide at her boldness.

"What are you doing...?"

"Giving you my number." She replied and gave him the marker, pulling her own sleeve back.

"Now you give me yours."

"Why...?"

"Because I said so now write your number down."

Allen seemed to think about this for a moment.

"And what if I don't have one?"

"Bullshit." Fou countered. "You're a teenagers. Teenagers have phones. If they don't have phones, they find a way to get one. Now write your number or I'll beat it out of you."

"I don't really see the point in this." Allen sighed and wrote his number down on her wrist. "I'm better left handed, but..." Allen looked at his arm. Fou narrowed her eyes at the numbers on her wrist.

"Are you shitting me? You write like a girl."

"That's sexist." Allen commented.

"I am a girl, dweeb." She replied, flicking him on the forehead. "Anyways, I'll text you later."

"Please don't." Allen huffed and walked away.

"Rude. What's his deal?" Fou asked, grabbing the selfie stick from Shifu.

"Well he _did_ get hit by a car...I wouldn't exactly be all rainbows and butterflies either." The boy replied.

"True."

"Well, that was...weird." Lenalee commented. Allen nodded as well.

"I wasn't having a good day." Allen scratched at his white locks. "Plus she spilled her drink on me and I literally went shopping the day before so it was a new shirt." Lenalee stood up and walked off, bringing curious stares from everyone. She opened a few drawers and returned with a notebook before sliding it over to Allen. Allen narrowed his eyes at the empty paper.

"You said you're better left handed, but you were writing right handed."

"Okay?"

"Write something down with your left and right hand." She replied. "Genuine curiosity."

"What do I write?"

"How about our names?" Lavi suggested. Allen sighed and grabbed the pencil with his left hand, writing all their names down, including Fou's since she was somewhat in the band. He then did it with his right. The left was neater than the right, but not by much. "Well I'll be damned, you're ambidextrous." Lavi commented.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Nah, not really. But if you break one of your arms, you can still do work at school instead of getting someone else to do it for you and you have no excuse." Allen sweat dropped at the disadvantage.

"That's not really..."

"That's talent right there. How did you learn?" Lenalee questioned. Allen hummed to himself.

"Well, my father was right handed, but my uncle, who lived with us at the time, was left handed. As a child, I didn't exactly know which one was right, so I just used both. Whenever I was with Mana, I used my right hand, whenever I was with my uncle, I used my left." Allen paused and then let out a small laugh. "The looks on their faces was quite amusing when they bragged to each other that I wrote with the same hand as one of them."

"That's so..." Lenalee whispered. Her eyes almost looked like they were sparkling... "...cute..."

"...what's so cute about i-"

"I'm back!" Tiedoll chimed and laid a plate of brownies in front of them. Allen stared at the brownies for a very long time. "So, what did I miss?"

"Allen's ambidextrous." Lavi informed. Tiedoll nodded.

"Yep, I know that." Allen sweat dropped and turned his head away.

"Eh? Oh, did you learn from filing?"

"Hm? Oh, no, I simply got that when he chopped all his hair off."

Everyone looked over at Allen.

"What?" He grumbled.

"Chopped all his hair off? Allen...you had long hair?" Lenalee questioned.

"He did! It was really beautiful..." Tiedoll sighed.

"Why did you cut it?" Lavi asked curiously.

"I suppose you could call it...memories, perhaps?"

_Narain loved my long hair...if I kept my hair long and looked in the mirror everyday...I'd go insane for sure. _

"Memories?" Lenalee asked.

Allen wasn't comfortable with this subject.

"Yes." Allen nodded. "Narain loved my long hair, you see. After he passed...I just couldn't keep it up anymore. So, to keep me from going anymore insane than I already was, I cut it." Tiedoll nodded.

"It actually scared me a little to be honest. Heh, I thought you had tried to kill yourself."

"Of course not." Allen narrowed his eyes.

"K-killed?" Lenalee's voice cracked.

"Well, I went off to collect lunch for him, you see. When I returned, the scissors I used to cut his hospital bracelet off was gone, as well as the ones that are used for surgery. He was gone too, so I was really freaked. But, turns out he was just in the bathroom."

"I feel like it wasn't as calm as you just explained it..." Lavi mumbled.

"Oh, it wasn't..." Allen replied with a small chuckle. "I was a little out of it so I nearly sliced Tiedoll when he tried to comfort me." He paused. "I was also a little not right in the head so I just unevenly cut it. He had to go back over and fix it, though."

"I almost couldn't fix it." Tiedoll frowned.

"Well, it's just hair anyways." Allen shrugged. "As long as it was short, I didn't care what it looked like."

"Right, well, moving on from this slightly depressing topic, why don't you guys have some brownies? I made them myself!"

**April 25th **

"I think we need to play." Fou said out of the blue that day. Allen and the others were just hanging out after finishing off the last of their pizza when she just randomly said that.

"Play?" Shifu questioned, inquiring her to continue.

"Yeah. Like, our instruments. It's been awhile since we all played together. Just because Allen's in a band, doesn't mean he can't play with us. Besides, a few of my friends, aka our fans, said that they missed us playing together and said that if we ever wanted to, she holds a party every Saturday. "I think we should go. Besides, it might help your stage fright, Allen. You won't have to sing with Innocence, but you can sing with us just to prepare."

"I suppose you do have a point there. I think it'd be a nice stress reliever."

"Awesome. I can vlog too! This could get us and Innocence popular."

"I like the idea." Rikei grinned. "It's been awhile since I've been to a party."

"As long as I don't have to drink or have my drink spiked, I'm all in." Allen nodded.

"It sounds fun..." Lou Fa said quietly.

So, Fou instantly dialed up her friend and volunteered them to play that night. It was all a little sudden, but that's just how Fou did things. Bluntly and suddenly. Her friend supplied them with a van to use to transport their instruments to and from (quite nice of her, actually. Allen made sure to thank her several times) the house. It wasn't really that far, but they had to transport guitars, drums, his keyboard, etc. While setting up on the stage, Fou got a call out of the blue by, you guessed it, Lavi. Rikei and Allen, who were currently talking about how this girl had a stage in her _house_ turned their attention to the smallest of the five when she cursed to herself. "What's up?" Rikei asked.

"The annoying 'rabbit' is calling, what do I do? Eh, I'll just not answer." She shrugged.

"What if it's important." Allen pressed.

"I'm sure it's fine. It's not like I signed a contract saying I'll answer all his calls. Besides, we need this night to be stress-free."

"If you say so..." Allen mumbled and continued his conversation.

After talking with the others for awhile, people began to gather into the living room excitedly, chattering among themselves as Fou's friend, whose name was Sachiko, Allen learned. He only learned this because she was one of Innocence's biggest fans and was super happy when she heard that Allen was going to be their new keyboardist. Luckily she didn't ask about Daisya. She dismissed herself to go hype the crowd up and the five of them tuned their instruments and such. "This damn brat...he's persistent..." Fou muttered, glaring at her phone.

"What's going on?" Allen asked, frowning.

"Nothing important...just don't worry about it." She mumbled. Allen gave her a suspicious look before looking back at the crowd. It actually wasn't as big as he thought it would be...even though people were still piling in. _But, this is nothing compared to what I'll have to face with Innocence. If I can't do this, I shouldn't even bother trying. _Allen thought determinedly. After pocketing her phone, Fou jogged over and decided to discuss what they were going to play.

"Something upbeat!" Rikei grinned.

"Yeah, something that'll get the crowd going that's for sure...what about Savior?" Fou questioned, a grin also obvious on her face.

"You really like that song, don't you?" Allen asked with a small smile.

"Love it."

"But I don't play in it..."

"Who says you need to? Your voice itself is an instrument." She winked.

"I'm up for it." Rikei nodded.

"Well, it's decided then!" She cheered. They moved Allen's keyboard to a different location (a safe one) before walking back onstage. Fou snatched the mic from Allen and shouted encouraging things through the mic before handing it back to him. Allen laughed and shook his head. She was such a nut.

"You guys ready?" He asked them. They all nodded their heads. This was a sudden song too, so everything had to be on time. Allen tapped his foot to them, signalling when he was going to sing. Fou could feel her heart racing just by the thought of playing the song. As he voice rose, as did the playing of a guitar. It wasn't at full speed yet, but it was still pretty quick.

_"It kills me not to know this but I've all but just forgotten  
__What the color of her eyes were and her scars or how she got them  
__As the telling signs of age rain down a single tear is dropping  
__Through the valleys of an aging face that this world has forgotten"_

Allen dragged the last note out and just as he was about to finish, the beat picked up and everyone began to play their instruments accordingly. A few seconds of the instrumental passed and Allen began to sing once again.

_There is no reconciliation that will put me in my place  
__And there is no time like the present to drink these draining seconds  
__But seldom do these words ring true when I'm constantly failing you  
__Like walls that we just can't break through until we disappear"_

A few of the audience shuddered when his voice became a little more passionate.

_"So tell me now  
__If this ain't love then how do we get out  
__Because I don't know"_

Fou's thoughts of _here comes my favorite part_ spread to the others, and they began to feel overpowering excitement as well.

_"That's when she said I don't hate you boy  
__I just want to save you while there's still something left to save  
__That's when I told her I love you girl  
__But I'm not the answer for the questions that you still have" _

During the chorus, Shifu and Rikei sang their 'whoas' and Allen got back on to the additional lyrics after.

_But the day pressed on like crushing weights  
__For no man does it ever wait  
__Like memories of dying days  
__That deafen us like hurricanes_

_Bathed in flames we held the brand  
__Uncurled the fingers in your hand  
__Pressed into the flesh like sand  
__Now do you understand?"_

As the song carried on, the crowd became more and more excited, and even started to record videos and take pictures, cheering all the way. Allen himself regained all confidence he threw away and felt like he was dancing on clouds. If he could dance, he would be dancing right now.

_So tell me now  
__If this ain't love then how do we get out?  
__Because I don't know  
__That's when she said I don't hate you boy  
__I just want to save you while there's still something left to save  
__That's when I told her I love you girl  
__But I'm not the answer for the questions that you still have_

Fou started her guitar solo and if he'd never met Kanda, Allen would've thought that it was impossible for any person to be _that_ good. Fou told him that playing guitar was just a little something she picked up, but there had to be more to it. She was really good and Allen would pay to see a showdown between her and his not-most-favorite-guitar-player Kanda.

_One thousand miles away  
__There's nothing left to say  
__But so much left that I don't know_

_We never had a choice  
__This world is too much noise  
__It takes me under  
__It takes me under once again"  
_

The beat slowed down and Allen dragged the notes at melodically, getting a few screams from the girls in the crowd. The crowd had definitely gotten bigger, but still Allen's confidence refused to back down.

_"I don't hate you  
__I don't hate you, no_

_So tell me now  
__If this ain't love then how do we get out?  
__Because I don't know"_

The beat sped up one last time for the chorus. As Allen's voice dragged out the last four lyrics, the beat never slowed down. They played it perfectly all the way through. Allen was proud to call them his friends. They were truly outstanding.

_"That's when she said I don't hate you boy  
__I just want to save you while there's still something left to save  
__That's when I told her I love you girl  
__But I'm not the answer for the questions that you still have _

_I don't hate you  
__I don't hate you  
__I don't hate you  
__I don't hate you, no"_

After it ended, the crowd roared and Allen found himself grinning alongside the others. He felt like no one could bring him down. Even if it was just for a small party, Allen felt really proud of himself. His knees didn't even feel wobbly. For once, his heart wasn't racing from fear, but from excitement. Fou trotted over and ruffled his hair. They got a few 'encores' from the crowd, and continued to play for the next _three_ hours. Allen was quite worried that his voice wouldn't return for Monday, but that was still two (one?) days away, so he wasn't all that worried. Besides, it's not like he actually sang for Innocence anyways. After leaving the stage, Sachiko set up a DJ and the five of them joined the party, screaming alongside the others.

"That was awesome." Fou said, grinning from ear to ear.

"I think my throat is broken." Rikei commented, feeling said body part.

"_Your_ throat?" Allen said incredulously. They all laughed together as they headed to the kitchen.

"I think this calls for celebration!" Fou cheered, getting glasses of punch.

"I'm not sure I trust this liquid." Allen mumbled, looking down at the cup in his hand.

"Lighten up! It's just a little, am I right? You deserve it." Fou patted his shoulder. "Just have one or two, you'll be fine!"

She must have forgotten that Allen was an absolute _lightweight. _

An hour later after they all parted to have their own fun found Allen on the couch cuddling with strangers. Of course, said strangers didn't mind. After their performance, they were the light of the party. Fou was just passing by and stopped dead, looking over. She heaved a huge sigh and walked over, taking Allen away from them. "Allen. You're drunk."

"A little..." Allen mumbled, laying his head on her shoulder. "Tired too...can we go home?"

"But...I want to stay." Fou nodded.

"But Foooou, I'm tiiiired...it's threee in the mooorning." He whined.

"Exactly. It's not sunrise yet." She paused. "Besides. We're _all_ drunk and don't have a designated driver until we sober up, so you have to stay."

"I don't wannaaaa." Allen complained.

"Ugh. I'll find someone..." She murmured and dropped him on an empty couch, keeping a firm gaze on him to make sure he didn't go wander off to cuddle with random people. Or vice versa. She called Bak. Bak didn't answer. So she called Lenalee...then Miranda, then Kanda, then Tiedoll, then Krory she even called _Cross_. She sighed dramatically, looking at the contact 'stupid idiot' with disdain. She dialed his number and crossed her fingers. _Please don't pick up, please don't pick up, please don't pick u-_

"'Ello?"

"Fuck."

"Hm?"

"Nothing, what are you doing, Lavi?"

"Uh...well I _was_ sleeping."

"Yeah, so is everyone else. Do you mind doing me a favor?"

"Why should _I_ do you a favor when _you_ wouldn't answer? Where are you anyways? It's really loud."

"A party."

"Whaaaat, you went to a party without meeee?"

"Shut up. I need you to come here."

"Whyyyy I'm tiiiired."

"Because we're all drunk and Allen wants to leave."

"Why didn't you call someone else?" His voice grumbled and she heard rustling, causing a grin to appear on her face.

"Like I said before, everyone is sleeping. If it makes you feel any better, _you_ were the last person I called."

"Ow."

"You're welcome."

"Ruuuude. Anyways, text me the add-wait." Lavi paused. "Can't Allen drive? Why doesn't he drive himself home?"

"Because he's drunk too." She heard a sigh over the phone and chuckled a little.

"Alright, alright. Text me the address and I'll be on my way. But you _owe _me."

"Yep, thanks I guess, bye." She hung up and instantly started texting him the address.

Allen was nearly asleep when she looked over towards him. She shook his shoulder lightly. "Come on, Allen, don't you wanna go home?"

"Nooo I don't wanna go to my house..." Allen whined. Fou's eye twitched.

"You're not going to your house, you're going to Lavi's."

"Whyyyy?"

"Do you want to leave or not?"

Silence.

"That's what I thought, now let's go."

"Okay." Allen mumbled and _very slowly _got up, falling on her.

"For the love of god, Allen, can't you stand?"

"I'm workin' on it..." He mumbled, getting up, but still leaning against her heavily. She lead him to the front door and Lavi got there about ten minutes later.

"I never thought I'd actually be happy to see you." Fou grumbled, shoving Allen towards him.

"Whoa, careful there." Lavi mumbled, almost falling over when Allen fell on him. He looked up for Fou, only to find her gone. "Well, let's go." Lavi winced when Allen leaned against him as they walked. "I thought you said you didn't drink?"

"I do...a little...Fou's fault..." Allen mumbled.

Lavi helped him in the passenger seat and buckled him up, rubbing his eye before heading over to the driver's seat and sitting down. The drive to Lavi's house was actually quite silent. It was different from the one they practiced at, and was actually a bit smaller. Almost as if this was normal, Lavi helped him to the house and into the bed and turned the light off, shutting the door behind him with a sigh. _Now, time for be- _

"Laaaaavi." He heard from the room and felt his eye twitch. He opened the door to see Allen hugging one of the pillows.

"What?"

"I'm hungry."

"You won't be hungry once you go to sleep." Lavi pointed out and closed the door. He headed to his room and flopped on the bed, breathing in the scent of his pillow. It was a nice relief from the stench of alcohol Allen emitted. Yeah, he liked alcohol, but he didn't like smelling it on other people. It made him want to drink. He froze when he felt another weight join him on the bed. He spun around to see Allen, who was still hugging the pillow, staring at him expectantly. "What now?"

"I don't wanna sleep alone..."

"Well you can't sleep here."

"Why not?"

"Because you can't."

"Mean..." Allen whined and rolled off the bed. Lavi blinked and looked down to see Allen on the floor.

"What are you doing?"

"Sleeping." Allen mumbled, burying his face in the pillow.

"...on the floor?"

"On the floor." Allen nodded.

"Why?"

"Because I can't sleep up there."

_You've got to be kidding me. He's like a little kid. _Lavi winced and sighed.

"Get up here."

Allen's eyes sparkled.

He quickly crawled in the bed and snuggled under the covers. _So tired..._Lavi thought as his eye began to close. Allen's closed as well.

Hopefully the morning would be a lot less stressful than tonight.

* * *

**I feel like, despite his chipper mood, Lavi would be cranky when he's tired so :P continuing on, I'd like to thank RG and Lead Potato. You two are amazing and thank you so much.**


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